The Light Brigade
by Ravenfur
Summary: Elements of Lt. Col. John Sheppard's past come to light when the Daedalus brings reinforcements to Atlantis. Harry Potter crossover, light McShep.
1. Chapter One

**The Light Brigade** _by Ravenfur_

_AN: Well, I couldn't leave well enough alone. As always, I don't own Stargate: Atlantis or the Harry Potter series. I merely like to borrow when I can. _

* * *

**Chapter One**

* * *

Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard hated his dreams. Memories that he could ignore during the day would invariably surface during his slumber. Every ugly thing he had encountered would plague his subconscious. His time at Atlantis was represented, but equal time was given to before he had joined the Air Force, before he had been called John Sheppard. That night's nightmare had been one of the worst. He sat up in bed, knowing he would never get back to sleep, mind drifting back to the time before he had been John Sheppard.

Ron Weasley, his brother by blood rite, had been killed by Severus Snape before the former Potions professor had been targeted with an explosive. Seamus Finnegan had been working as an impromptu explosives expert for the Brigade - there was more demand for that than was to be expected - and was killed by Antonin Dolohov protecting his fiancé Susan. Susan Bones herself followed her fiancé to the afterlife soon after that, sending many of her enemies before her to lead the way.

At least this Light Brigade still had survivors, unlike the six-hundred men that were the namesake of Harry's followers and friends.

Hermione, his sister by the same blood rite that he had done with Ron, had been directing troops from the command post, hovering over a large map not unlike the one made by James Potter and the Marauders. She had been injured, taken by surprise when the command post had been attacked, but didn't get wounded badly. She was left with a weakness in her left leg that would require her to use a cane for the rest of her life.

Neville Longbottom was still alive, although somewhat by luck. The young man had a chance to shine when he was tapped to be the potions expert within the Brigade, and his new confidence helped him become one of the Brigade's fiercest duelists. Neville had been watching over Luna healing one of the Light Brigade's members and caught a cutting curse in the back. He still had full mobility- the only reminder was a large scar down one side of his back.

Fred and George had developed many of the deadly weapons that had turned the tide in favor of the Light Brigade. They had been shot off their broom by Rodolphus Lestrange. The Death Eater hadn't been prepared for the ingenuity of the two redheads. When the twins were done, all that was left of Rodolphus was a pink stain on the green grass.

John, back when he was still Harry Potter, had been injured and almost bled out on the field of battle. Luckily Luna Lovegood, fully accredited mediwitch and commander of the healers of the Light Brigade had pumped him full of restoratives and stopped the bleeding. His wounds healed without a physical scar, though his mental scars were deep.

Two of the most notable deaths occurred before the battle. Draco Black, one of Voldemort's most trusted men and a spy for the Light Brigade was killed by the Dark Lord after transmitting the coordinates of Voldemort's headquarters to the Brigade.

On the light side, Ginerva Weasley was killed by violating a blood oath she signed when she joined the Light Brigade. The blood oath, something every Brigade member signed, made sending information to Voldemort a death sentence. Luckily only John knew the exact numbers of their forces, and the attack against Voldemort had been successful.

John sighed, rubbing his face. After the clean-up, the British Wizarding World and more specifically the Ministry itself had wanted to drum the entire Brigade into government service. The Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was particularly determined to take control of the ready-made army. When the Ministry began trying coercion and spells to influence the Brigade members, John had decided he had enough.

As a group those who wished to get away from it all decided to fade into the Muggle world. A large chunk of the Light Brigade decided to do so as well. John decided to leave England altogether and go to the United States. He felt that there was more room to disappear into a crowd. The Secretary of Magic and special advisor to the President of the United States, Herman Juno, had been especially helpful getting set up in California.

John Sheppard had been one of the aliases he had used in the Muggle world before Voldemort was killed and it was easy enough to get used to calling and being called that. After picking a name, finally getting the prominent scar on his forehead removed and having his Wizarding money transferred to United States dollars, he had gone to do the one thing he enjoyed - fly. Enlisting in the Air Force had seemed like the best use of his abilities and it hadn't been hard to learn the technology and weaponry. The Air Force paid for college and he got a degree in mathematics. After working arithmatical equations and creating several spells, Muggle mathematics was surprisingly simple. Once he finished getting his doctorate he shipped out to basic training.

At times John wondered how Hermione, Luna, Neville and some of his other friends were doing but even he didn't know the new names they chose for each other. All he knew was that Hermione had went to France to study at one of their universities, Luna had made her way to the United States to study medicine and Neville had joined the armed forces somewhere. That was after they had finally gotten married, though. Personally, John hadn't told anyone where he was going or what he was going to do, though they knew that his assumed first name would be John.

Rubbing his right shoulder, John pictured the tattoo there. Everyone in the Light Brigade who had disappeared into the Muggle world had gotten the same image on various parts of their body. The tattoo was part representation of the fight they had gone through and part a way to identify each other.

The blue saber and grey staff crossed in front of a gold sunburst, their symbol for the Light Brigade, was supernaturally clear - magic being much more accurate than needle and ink. Nobody had seen the tattoo even if he had gone shirtless. The magic in it only allowed others with the matching tattoo to view it. Surrounding the Brigade's symbol was a string of small purple stars, marking him as the commander. His command group, consisting of Hermione, Ron, Neville and Luna, had gray stars surrounding the sunburst. Normal ranked Brigade members had blue stars.

The Colonel hadn't told anyone on Atlantis about his Wizarding past. Rodney, however, knew some. John had given in to the need to confide in someone after swearing McKay to secrecy. Rodney knew that his parents had been murdered when he was a child and that he had grown up with despicable relatives. He knew that John had gone to a school for the 'gifted' in Scotland and that he had come over from the United Kingdom after tracking down the man who had killed his parents. Rodney suspected that what was left of the murderer wasn't pretty, but he didn't comment on that. The scientist was also the only person to know that he hadn't always been called John Sheppard, though he didn't know what his original name had been. McKay understood that there were some things he couldn't tell anyone about his past.

Rodney had been an unexpected - yet welcome - development in Atlantis. When he first met the grouchy scientist in Antarctica they had hit it off, becoming fast friends. That all changed after the hurricane that hit Atlantis. They bonded closer than ever that night, becoming lovers after spending most of the next week talking about their shared experiences. This relationship was the only reason that he had told Rodney about his past instead of keeping him in the dark like the rest of his coworkers.

John closed his eyes as he felt a presence touch his mind. _-Worry/curiosity/love/comfort-_ flooded his mind and he grinned.

"Don't worry, I'm alright. I'm just not going to get any more sleep tonight," John told the empty room._ -Agreement/love/comfort-_ sent by Atlantis brushed his mind.

When he left Earth, John hadn't been expecting to find a sentient city awaiting him. He hadn't expected to form a bond with the city close enough that he could feel her even in the Milky Way galaxy. Atlantis was the other half of his mind. She knew his moods, what he wanted and could help him with anything if she was able. Atlantis was closer to him than almost anyone he had ever met. They were almost two parts to a whole. _-Agreement/love-_ washed over his mind after that thought.

John grumbled quietly to himself but got out of bed and pulled on a reasonably clean uniform. He donned the little headset radio, holstered his pistol - never go anywhere unarmed in the Pegasus Galaxy - and exited his room.

* * *

Wandering through the halls John passed the occasional Marine on a security patrol and a night owl scurrying somewhere, probably to the nearest coffee pot. The majority of the night owls out wore the blue on tan jacket of the science division, so it was understandable that they were up at four AM Earth time. They were practically nocturnal.

John eventually made it to the mess hall and was somewhat surprised to see Rodney McKay sitting at a table near a window, typing away on a laptop. The Colonel collected a sandwich and a rare treat - a fresh apple, possibly the last in Atlantis until tomorrow's supply trip by the _Daedalus._

John joined the distracted scientist, sitting down next to him. There were other night-owls in the mess hall so he didn't kiss Rodney like he wanted to, merely leaning against him. "I thought you were going to sleep tonight?" John questioned as he bit into his turkey sandwich.

"Yes, yes, yes, sleep," Rodney muttered as he continued work on his computer. The dark circles under his eyes showed he had not gotten any sleep yet. He could tell Rodney was detached from the world around him by the focus he was giving the laptop screen.

John sighed and shoved the coffee he had grabbed towards Rodney. The dazed look on the scientist's face showed that he needed it a lot more than John did. After half the mug was drained Rodney looked more coherent. "What are we working on now?" John asked.

"Just going over a program that Kavanagh fouled up," McKay said as he made several edits to the programming code. He followed with several phrases aimed at the long-haired scientist, none of them pleasant or suited for polite company.

"Why haven't we shipped him back to Earth in a packing crate yet?" Sheppard mused aloud as he cut his apple in half. One half was offered to Rodney, who took it with a nod.

Rodney grinned. "I'll add it to the list of things to do when we have a quiet day. Even if the SGC sends him back, it'll be hilarious."

They talked about miscellaneous things, as they always did. Armageddon with Bruce Willis was voted on unanimously for the next movie shown at the next possible chance. The merits of Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard versus William Shatner as Captain Kirk were debated. An entire hour was dedicated to the ways they could discreetly - and not so discreetly - get rid of Kavanagh. Time was also spent discussing the next mission that their team would go on when Teyla got back from visiting her people on the mainland. All together too soon the sun rose and people began filtering into the mess hall.

* * *

Two hours later found the senior staff of the Atlantis expedition waiting for the _Daedalus_ to land. John, Rodney and Carson Beckett, CMO at Atlantis, all had new recruits making their way to the floating city.

_-Warning/expectation/greeting-_ brushed John's mind and a second later the _Daedalus_ landed. Some of the grunts began unloading the _Daedalus_'s cargo while the passengers disembarked.

Elizabeth Weir smiled at the crowd of newbies, welcomed them and divided everyone by specialty. John took the new Marines to a meeting room while Carson took his new nurses and doctors on a tour of the infirmary and Rodney took the new scientists to the labs.

In the meeting room, John sat down and got comfortably slouched before beginning his speech. "Welcome to Atlantis. As you probably know, I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and I'm in charge of everything military here, as well as being second in command to Dr Weir. I'd just like to remind you that Dr Weir is in charge overall, for you people who hadn't worked under a civilian before that means that yes, you do follow her orders, even if she wants you to get her coffee." There were a few laughs at that.

"We do things differently here than most other military bases. I'm a pretty relaxed CO in most things, so if follow your orders and listen to the veterans here we won't have any problems." As much as he hated making speeches, Sheppard knew that this was important to say.

John thought on the hologram generator that was Atlantis' version of a projector and double checked that its system had the images loaded. After that he began the who's who of the Pegasus galaxy, geared to those of a military mindset. Rodney and Carson would be giving the same speech to their rookies, with different things emphasized.

Aided by holograms, the Colonel introduced the Marines to the Wraith. John brought up a hologram of the Wraith he had named Steve. "This is the enemy. It's called a Wraith, the Pegasus galaxy's version of a vampire. They feed by sucking the life-force of a human out of their body through glands in their hands. Depending on how much it feeds, the victim can be aged to the point of death. After a Wraith feeds its strength and regenerative capabilities is increases. If you've got a recently fed Wraith, you better have extra clips."

John went into detail about the Queens, the workers and the warriors, then spoke about the weapons used. "You'll have the chance to get familiar with some of the Wraith weaponry later in the afternoon.

After going over almost everything that Atlantis knew about the Wraith, John began to speak about the Genii. He was sure to specify that although they were currently at a cease-fire with them, the Genii were not to be trusted and were always out for their own interests. Holograms of their on again, off again allies were displayed and John spoke on how to identify a Genii soldier.

When he was done going on about the various enemies that they had made, John began to talk about their allies. Most of his time was spent talking about the Athosians, the very first people they had met in the Pegasus galaxy. Sadly they had made more enemies than allies, so that portion of the discussion was short.

When he was done, John thought off the generator and opened the floor to questions. Hands raised, and John randomly picked one. "Sir, Captain Frank Willows, sir," the Marine barked out and saluted. John paused - Frank Willows looked familiar, felt familiar to his senses. John couldn't tell why. "What exactly is our assignment going to be sir?"

John grinned. "Well, mostly you guys are going to be providing security here on Atlantis as well as being reinforcements when the shit hits the fan off Atlantis. If you're lucky, you might be chosen for a Stargate team."

Questions were answered - it seemed like every new Marine had at least one question, some silly and some serious. When the question and answer session was done, John grabbed the tablet PC showing the list of new recruits and led the way to the different storage rooms.

It took twenty minutes to get the new recruits kitted out. Headset radios, handguns and tac vests were handed out. If they were due to go off-base they would grab a P-90, but the handguns were all that was needed while on Atlantis. The next stop on the tour was the firing range to teach them how to handle the various weapons found in the Pegasus galaxy. It got a little hairy when target practice with Wraith rifle-sized stunners and their handheld cousins began.

"This is a Wraith stunning weapon. They use these to bring in their prey with the least amount of effort. They paralyze the stunned person so they can be brought aboard the hive ship to be fed upon. It takes some time for the paralysis to wear off after you've woken up from being stunned. We'll be going over using these more in the coming days, but I thought you'd like to try them out today," John said as he demonstrated the rifle-sized version of the stunner. The blue energy blast tore a hole in a picture of a Wraith Queen that had been pinned up at the end of the range.

Two Marines almost got stunned by each other's weapons when they first picked them up. After controlling his laughter, John got them lined up and blue stunner fire flew towards the targets. Major Evan Lorne wandered in at that point, joining the Colonel. "How are they doing?" he questioned.

John looked at his 2IC. "Some can't shoot stunners worth shit, but we'll work on that. What's up?"

"I was just curious to see if you had decided to send any back yet," Lorne replied, remembering how two of the first batch of reinforcements had been sent back to the SGC the day of their arrival.

"Not yet, but we'll see," John said, then was interrupted by a voice in his headset.

**"John? Can you come to the control room?"** Elizabeth Weir's voice asked him.

"I'll be right there," John told Elizabeth and shut off the connection. He turned to Lorne. "I've got to get to the control room. You're in charge here. Supervise a little more practice then hand out both room and security team assignments. Take them to the mess after that. The lists are on that PC on the table. Keep an eye on them, will you?" Lorne nodded as Sheppard walked out of the room.

Evan Lorne picked up the tablet PC and looked over the room assignments before setting it back down. "Alright everyone, I'm Major Evan Lorne, 2IC to Colonel Sheppard. I've got your room assignments, all the new arrivals are going to be in the same area even if you're in different fields, but I'll go over those in a second."

Lorne paused and looked over the rookies. "Okay, first order of business, now that Colonel Sheppard's not in the room. The unwritten rules of Atlantis and the Pegasus Galaxy.

"Number one: Don't get between the scientists and their coffee. Most of the time they need it to stay awake while figuring out how to keep us alive, so if there's one cup left give it to a scientist." There were a few laughs at that.

"Number two: Don't tease the scientists. They're the ones who maintain everything here, and can get their revenge creatively. If you do prank the scientists," here Lorne smirked at the recruits, "because you're going to want to, you'd better be at least two hundred percent sure it can't be traced back to you. They'll find out."

There was another pause, and then the Major looked around. "How many of you have the ATA gene?" Five hands raised - Captain Frank Willows, Lieutenant Judith Marks, Captain George Fischer, Major Greg Caryle and Lieutenant Hannah Anderson. "Rule number three applies to you five. Don't advertise the fact that you have the ATA gene. The scientists will want to use you as a light switch and Colonel Sheppard will offer your services to them so he doesn't have to do it himself." The five mentioned nodded while the rest of the new recruits smirked.

"Number four," Lorne continued, "The city of Atlantis is sentient. If you want to have, for example, hot water, don't insult her. She controls everything technological here and she'll make it known if she doesn't like you." The Major knew this for a fact - after three years, Kavanagh still couldn't get any hot water. Even if he went to someone else's bathroom the water would still be ice cold. The scientist had given up trying to fix it. "If you ask her to do something she might do it, but the only one she listens to is Colonel Sheppard." There was a bit of confusion on the Marine's faces, so he expounded on the odd relationship between city and soldier.

"Colonel Sheppard is bonded to Atlantis. I don't know the extent of their bond, but I do know that he could communicate with Atlantis from as far away from the city as Earth." There were the expected murmurs of surprise at the sheer distance that the bond would have to pass to reach Earth.

There was another pause before Lorne got back on track with the unwritten rules. "Anyways, the last rule. Pay attention to this one, folks. For the love of any God, Goddess or Supreme Being that there might be, don't touch anything if you don't know what it does! I don't want to be scraping up your remains when you're blown to hell by a disguised weapon, or having to replace you if you're killed by a virus hidden in an artifact." Lorne looked at the new recruits. "Don't. Touch. Anything." All of the unwritten rules seemed like sense to the new recruits.

Evan Lorne took a few questions that they were a bit too nervous to ask their new CO and then got them lined up and firing stunners again.

* * *

John walked up the steps to the control room to find Elizabeth looking over the shoulder of Chuck the technician. When Elizabeth saw him she patted the gate technician's shoulder and left him to his work.

"Major Jordan and his team aren't back yet. They're the ones sent to M9X-288."

"The watermelon planet?" John asked, referring to the main crop the indigenous people farmed and traded. Elizabeth nodded. "They shipped out yesterday morning. Think they were captured?" This statement got a sigh and a nod from Dr Weir. "What's their level of development?"

"Similar to the Athosians," Elizabeth said. "At his last check in, the Major didn't say anything was wrong, but they're overdue for their return. We've dialed the gate and can't reach them on radio. I hate to drag you away from your new soldiers," she began but John was nodding.

"I'll grab Ronon," the Colonel said with a grin. "Lorne will keep an eye on the newbies." He changed his focus, looking at the ceiling slightly. Elizabeth recognized this communication with the city. After a moment he turned back to her. "Let me know if you hear anything from Major Jordan's team."

"I'll get Major Lorne to round up some Marines for you. Oh, and John?" The Colonel turned back at Elizabeth's voice. "Take Rodney with you."

John grinned. "Rodney's being Rodney again?"

"Radek radioed me, wondered if we could get him out of the lab for a while. Say it's a team thing," Elizabeth suggested. This got a nod from the Colonel and he departed the control room.

John ran off to one of the training rooms, the first place that he would have looked for Ronon even if Atlantis hadn't shown him an image of the Satedan. The training room that Ronon was currently throwing Marines around in was equidistant from the mess, the infirmary and his quarters, making it his favorite.

The Colonel reached the training room as Captain Jarvis hit the mat loudly. John winced in sympathy at the angle the man impacted the vinyl. When Ronon took a second to look around the room John got the big man's attention. "Hey," Ronon grunted as he wiped his face with a towel.

"Gear up and meet me in the gate room as soon as possible," John said. "Major Jordan's team is way overdue and we haven't heard anything."

Ronon interpreted this as potential fun and departed to his room to pull on something more suitable than a thin shirt. John looked at the man who was lying motionless on the mat. "You okay, Loren?"

Loren Jarvis nodded slightly. "I think I'll just lay here for a minute, sir," he said.

"You do that," John replied as he turned and walked out of the training room. He thought an inquiry to Atlantis and an image bloomed in his mind. _-Rodney yelling and scribbling on a whiteboard. The equation he was diagramming looked like something for the naquadah generators, given the sketch above it. The image panned out to show Lab 3.- _

The third lab was some distance away, the one where the scientists did most of their… touchy… experiments. This distance was purely a safety measure, and did not reflect on the scientists themselves. The fact that Lab 3 was where Zelenka stored his distillery and where some of the scientists held their strip Halo 2 tournaments certainly didn't factor into its position.

After taking a transporter to the nearest spot to the lab, John ran the rest of the way. He could have made the trip blindfolded, Rodney's shouts were so loud.

Looking into the lab, John could see Rodney frantically scribbling on a whiteboard while yelling at full volume. There was a smudge of black marker on the sleeve of the lab coat of the poor rookie he was shouting at. The Colonel could tell that the crowd of new scientists were already questioning their decision to come to Atlantis.

Interrupting a rather spectacular description of what the irritated would like to do to the quaking scientist, John shouted Rodney's name several times. That got no response, so he pulled out his secret weapon. "Coffee," he whispered.

"Coffee?" Rodney said before looking over. Almost immediately after seeing John leaning casually in the doorway he calmed from his rant and sighed. "That's a dirty trick, Colonel," Rodney smirked.

John grinned smugly. "Then you should stop falling for it. I could hear you all the way down at the transporter. What'd that one do to earn that?" he asked, gesturing to the petrified rookie.

Rodney grumbled and went back to scribbling a long string of mathematics on the board. "He leaned against my board."

"The same board you were up until three AM four nights in a row working on?" John asked, then winced. No wonder Rodney had gone all out in his bellowing. The equations were for maximizing the energy output of the ZPMs left behind by the Replicators. If the Colonel hadn't interrupted the Canadian he probably wouldn't have stopped until dinner.

"What's up? Normally I can't get you down to a lab unless I promise there's either turkey sandwiches or any DVD's we haven't seen yet," Rodney commented as he finished his thought on the board.

"Major Jordan's team is a day overdue. Elizabeth wants us to go check it out. Get suited up and pass the rookies to Radek."

Rodney sighed and returned the marker he was using to the board. "Alright, but I get to choose the next movie after Armageddon then." He turned to Radek Zelenka who had been watching the exchange. "Do... something with them," Rodney gestured to the new scientists. Radek nodded and shooed Rodney out of the lab.

"What's wrong with my movie choices?" John questioned as they walked out of the lab.

"We've seen The Fifth Element too many times," Rodney complained.

"It's a good movie!"

"Yeah, once, maybe twice. Not thirteen!"

It took ten minutes for the two to get kitted up, arguing all the way, and made their way to the gate room. They met up with a fully armed Ronon - for him, fully armed meant enough weaponry hidden on him to be spread out over a platoon. The three quarters of what was known on Atlantis as AR-1, short for Atlantis Reconnaissance Team 1, joined up with the four Marines that Lorne had rounded up. It took another two minutes before Elizabeth had given the mission a "go" and the gate dialed. An instant later they disappeared through the event horizon.

* * *

The Atlantis mess was filled with all three groups of rookies. They were pretty well polarized: grunts with grunts, geeks with geeks and docs with docs. Radek Zelenka, Carson Beckett and Evan Lorne were sitting at a separate table, keeping a weather eye on their charges. All three remembered the first meal that the second group of reinforcements shared together. It took two weeks for the residual stains to fade from the ceiling and that was only after extremely caustic cleaning treatments.

There was one table that wasn't separated by specialty. Sitting together with the ease of experience was Dr Sophie St. Claire, one of the scientists recruited from Area 51, Captain Frank Willows and Dr Kamaria Willows, wife to the Captain and physician specializing in trauma surgery. They had been friends before their Atlantis assignment.

"How are you two liking your new supervisors?" Sophie asked, making a grab for her cane before it fell. She spoke with a slight French accent.

"Colonel Sheppard seems alright. The other men," Frank began and spoke over Sophie's predictable interjection, "and women would do anything for him. You should have heard the tales some of the more experienced soldiers were telling. One story was how he single-handedly defeated an entire Genii invasion force when a hurricane was threatening Atlantis. We got interrupted before Sgt. Stackhouse could continue. Sheppard seems like a good CO."

Kamaria smiled. "I think I'll like working with Dr Beckett. He seems very nice, much better than some of the other CMO's I've had to work with. He's got the best Scottish accent..." she trailed off, smirking.

"Should I be worried?" Frank asked his wife, matching his smirk to hers. The trio laughed.

Sophie sighed and looked at her plate, at what could possibly be called meatloaf. "I'm glad you two like your bosses. Dr McKay probably hit a world record decibel level with his shouting today. Richard Wythe brushed up against one of the whiteboards in his lab and McKay went ballistic. Shouted for fifteen minutes before he was interrupted. I really hope I'm going to be working under Dr Zelenka."

"Is he really as unpleasant as Colonel Carter complains?" Captain Willows asked.

"He seems so. I'm surprised how nobody's killed him yet. How he got onto the flagship team and everyone's put up with him is beyond me."

Any further discussion was interrupted by Carson's raised voice. "Alright, we've got a wee bit of an emergency so let's get back to the infirmary and you'll see how we do things here." This announcement prompted the medical staff to abandon their meals and hurry back to the infirmary.

* * *

The Atlantis infirmary was crowded. The four members of AR-4 had been rescued from M9X-288 and had come out of being held captive by the natives with only one arrow wound, four broken bones and a dislocated shoulder between the four of them. Their rescuers were fine.

Then there was John Sheppard. He had been watching the group's 'six' after they had pulled Major Jordan's team out of the pit they were being held in. The natives were not happy that their sacrifice to the Wraith would be disturbed and aimed their first retaliatory volley at him specifically. John had two arrows in his back, an arrow in his left arm and four more in his chest.

What worried Carson was the possible punctured lung caused by an arrow in his chest. Sheppard's breathing was more difficult than usual, even for having seven arrows sticking out of him and scans were too inconclusive for Carson's liking. Not to mention the amount of blood coming from the wound, too much for merely getting shot with an arrow.

The Scottish CMO immediately scrubbed for surgery and wheeled the Colonel into one of the operating rooms. The experienced surgical team went to work with the ease that came from three years of working together.

Kamaria and the rest of the new doctors were put to work under Dr Biro's eye setting the various breaks and removing the arrow in Sgt. Canning's shoulder. The dislocated shoulder was easy to pop back into place. The uninjured members, mostly the rescue team, were given a standard after-mission physical to make sure they didn't bring anything back with them. One by one they were cleared to leave.

Not that they all did. Dr Unpleasant and his companion Mr Lurking only left as far as the two hospital beds closest to the operating room. Kamaria Willows and the rest of the new recruits were confused. "Dr Biro? Should we get them to leave?" This was asked by, in Kamaria's opinion, one of the denser new doctors.

Biro snorted. "The day you can get Colonel Sheppard's team to leave when one of them is in the infirmary is the day you get a one million dollar bonus. They're all too damn stubborn."

Fifteen minutes passed before Elizabeth Weir made it down from the briefing with the soldiers who didn't refuse to leave the infirmary. The CO of Atlantis Base was all too used to AR-1's concern for their injured teammates and accommodated them. She understood.

"So what happened out there, Rodney?" she asked as she perched in one of the visitors chairs near the two beds.

"Pretty much a standard search and rescue. We arrived in the village about a kilometer from the Stargate. We got Sgt. Canning on the radio - he was the only one who still had his - and he told us they were being held in a pit near the tree line in their city.

"We snuck in and stunned the guards with Wraith stunners. Unfortunately we were doing a jailbreak a couple of minutes before the first set of guards were going to be relieved. The Colonel and Ronon had just hauled the last member of the pit and the replacements arrived."

Rodney stopped talking and was looking towards the operating room with a tired expression on his face. Ronon took over when he could see that the Chief Scientist's attention had shifted. "The new guards sounded the alarm, we bolted for the gate and Sheppard got hit with the first volley, he was covering our rear."

"The bastard shoved me out of the way of one of the bolts," Rodney interjected, sounding supremely irritated in Kamaria's opinion. She didn't know what he had to be irritated about, McKay looked fine.

"We got to the gate, dialed while Sheppard tried not to pass out on us and we held off the natives. After we dialed we got back here and you know the rest." The intimidating large man went back to sharpening several knives that he had produced from his clothes (and three he had pulled from his dreadlocks).

Time passed without much being said until Carson Beckett came out of the operating room. He still was gowned and gloved, but he disrobed from the protection. "Well, the Colonel is an incredibly lucky lad. The arrow I was worried about just barely missed his right lung. He's got two broken ribs from the arrows in his chest, but that seems to be all. We removed the arrows and patched him back up. We had a bit of a bleeder, the arrow nicked an artery but we closed that quick enough." Carson could still see that Rodney looked worried, so he firmly said, "He'll be fine."

Rodney muttered something that could have possibly contained the words voodoo and sheep, but nodded to Carson thankfully. The CMO ignored this, used to Rodney's way of expressing worry and then turned to the idling new doctors. "Alright, you three," he pointed at three doctors at random, "the operating room needs a bit of a scrub. Don't get rid of the arrowheads we pulled from the Colonel, he normally hangs onto anything he was shot with. God knows why..." he mumbled the last bit, rubbing his eyes.

After a moment the OR doors opened again and John was wheeled out. He was unconscious and pale, but no longer looked like a porcupine. Carson went over to help shift him off the gurney and onto a bed. When this was accomplished he turned back to the new doctors. "You," he pointed at random again, "get the Colonel into some scrub bottoms. Get him cleaned up as well. The rest of you, I've got a closet of drugs that needs to be inventoried and organized. Dr Biro, can you show them the supply lists?" This got a nod and the gaggle broke up.

Kamaria walked over to where the scrubs were stored and pulled out a pair, then headed over to the Colonel's bed and pulled the privacy screens. The Colonel was gauzed and bandaged and had a thick ace bandage wrapped around his chest to support his ribs. One of the first things she noticed were the large number of scars decorating his body. In some parts of his body he seemed to be more scar tissue than flesh. He was very fit, as was to be expected for a man of his position. She was a married woman, very happily married, but Kamaria Willows had to admit he was handsome.

When she approached closer and began to unfold the scrubs she got a better look at her patient. John Sheppard looked rather familiar. Then she saw it, the tattoo on his right arm. A golden sunburst, with a blue saber and grey staff crossed in front of it. Tiny purple stars encircled it.

It felt like her heart stopped. She inspected the tattoo closely and could tell that it was a genuine Light Brigade tattoo. The purple stars... "Harry," Kamaria whispered, surprised at the true identity of Colonel John Sheppard. Kamaria put her hand on the tattoo, testing it with her magic, almost hoping that it was just a muggle tattoo and this was an amazing coincidence. The magic inherent in the Light Brigade's mark pushed back at her, a familiar feeling.

Somehow the Pegasus Galaxy felt a little safer knowing that Harry was there.

She looked closer at the scars decorating Harry's - no, he was Sheppard now - body. There was the fang puncture from the basilisk in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. The long one going down his arm was from the Voldemort's rebirthing ceremony. Several were wounds that she had healed after various battles in the Wizarding world. His trademark lightning bolt scar was gone, but that could have been removed by muggle surgery.

Kamaria was brought back to her senses as Sheppard mumbled and tried to turn over. She quickly changed him into the scrubs and got him underneath the blankets. Opening the privacy screen she saw that Dr Unpleasant and Mr Lurking were still here, but they moved over and took up spots around the Colonel's bed. The scientist actually pushed (although gently) Sheppard to the side a bit and sat down next to the Colonel's uninjured side.

John leaned against Rodney's side and let out something that might have been "Rodney," save for his mumbled voice and the way his face was pressed against the Chief Scientist's side.

Shrugging - at least her first friend had people that cared about him here - Kamaria retreated to where the rest of her coworkers were standing. Carson had walked over to her previous position near Sheppard's bed and was staring at Rodney with a Look on his face. "I'm going to keep the Colonel overnight. If you go in on his escape attempts, Rodney, I'm going to chain you to a bed the next time you're in here. I should do the same to him."

Rodney had a look of supreme innocence on his face, one that Kamaria recognized - it had the Weasley Twins' brand of 'I didn't do it' written all over it. "No, don't say anything," Carson interjected over whatever Rodney would have said. "Just do as I say this time." His expression promised hell to pay if the scientist didn't comply.

Kamaria didn't hear any more conversation between the CMO and the two members of Colonel Sheppard's team. The small crowd of new doctors had been split up, half to work the first shift tonight and half to work tomorrow morning. Kamaria was part of the second shift, and was dismissed, sent off with a map and an "Ask for directions, you'll probably need it," to find their quarters. It wasn't that hard once you got the hang of it, all the corridors and rooms had been numbered (although it seemed purely arbitrary how the numbers were assigned,) and Kamaria found the room she would share with her husband eventually.

Inside were both Sophie and Frank, telling jokes. They both looked up as Kamaria entered and smiled to her. This smile froze on their faces as they noticed how unnerved she looked. Kamaria sat down on the bed and sighed. "The emergency was Colonel Sheppard's team coming back from a rescue mission. Colonel Sheppard is in the infirmary but he'll be fine. But you'll never guess what I found out while I was there..." She paused. "The Colonel..."

Kamaria trailed off and Sophie asked, "What about Colonel Sheppard?"

"He's Harry." This statement shocked her two companions as much as the discovery shocked herself.

"Harry?" Sophie and Frank echoed, turning to more face the sitting Kamaria.

"I was told by Dr Beckett to change him into some scrubs after his surgery - he came back from a mission looking like a porcupine with seven arrows in him - and I saw his Brigade tattoo. I took a closer look and he's got the same scars that I remember, including the mark from the basilisk fang and wounds I healed. Did either of you have an idea that Harry was going to be here?"

Frank shook his head no but Sophie paused. "I knew that one of our group was going to be here. The Secretary of Magic gave me a letter to pass on but he didn't tell me who to give it to. All the man said was that I'd know who to deliver the letter to."

"He's going to be okay?" Frank inquired of his wife, concern for his old friend coming through in his voice.

Kamaria smiled. "Yeah, the Colonel will be fine. Dr Beckett was worried about a possible punctured lung but it turns out he barely avoided that. He just had a couple of broken ribs and the seven arrow wounds."

The room was silent for quite some time. Finally Sophie spoke. "Harry's here..." she trailed off, surprised. Harry - Colonel Sheppard, she reminded herself - had been the one member of the Light Brigade to disappear entirely. Other members had occasionally looked for him but no matter what they had tried everything came up blank.

"We'll talk to him tomorrow morning," Frank stated.

* * *

_AN: I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this. I have a rough idea on where I want to take it, so if it gets read and responded to, I'll keep going with it. It won't be long, probably only two or three parts. Thanks for reading and please review so I know to keep going._

_-Ravenfur_


	2. Chapter Two

**The Light Brigade** _by Ravenfur_

_AN: I'm surprised at the response I got to this. Thanks for the reviews everyone, I'll keep the installments coming. As I stated in the first chapter, I lay no claim to either Stargate: Atlantis or the Harry Potter series. Quoted in this chapter are verses from __Charge of the Light Brigade__ by Alfred 'Lord' Tennyson. Although it's a favorite poem of mine, I did not write it._

_Enjoy the chapter and please review. -R_

* * *

**Chapter Two**

* * *

The quick sounds of typing met John's ears as he was wrenched from his slumber, painkillers wearing off. Biting back a groan, the Colonel reluctantly opened his eyes and saw Rodney sitting on the end of his bed, working on something he couldn't see. Early morning sunshine was visible through the windows and John was surprised he had slept all night. Next to him, underneath the blanket and sheet, was hidden one of his clean uniforms. John smirked. So Rodney was thinking of springing him from here too. Great minds think alike.

"Morning," Rodney said as he shut off his laptop.

John grinned. "Good morning," he said, communicating with a look his thanks for spending the night here. "How are you?"

"A little sick of you pulling this shit and landing in the infirmary after every mission," Rodney glared at John. The Colonel ignored this, it was an old argument between them and they both knew each other's position well enough to recite it by rote. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," John automatically responded. That response got a scowl. 'Fine' could have meant anything from a paper cut to imminent death in John Sheppard's world. Before Rodney could say the familiar disparaging remark about 'fine', John asked, "Has the warden stopped by at all?"

"The warden's right here, thank you very much," Carson's tart voice came from the doorway into the infirmary. "Good to see you awake, Colonel." The doctor walked over and checked his chart before speaking again. "You seem to be doing alright. You lost a lot of blood and you've got several broken ribs. I'll probably release you later on in the afternoon. You're on medical leave for a week so nothing strenuous. I'm sure you know the routine by now." Carson looked him over. "Do you need another painkiller?"

Shaking his head no, John went to speak and pulled on his broken ribs. The resulting wince told the good Doctor all that he needed to know and prescribed a mild painkiller. Before he left, Carson glared at the duo, his eyes warning them not to try anything, not buying the innocent look on the pair's faces.

After waiting five minutes, a quick inquiry to Atlantis' sentience showed Carson hard at work at his desk. John gave Carson a good half hour to get settled in to the paperwork that he knew the CMO dedicated a large chunk of his morning to. He then took a moment to survey the room, mentally slipping into tactical mode. One 'guard', one 'ally' and freedom at the end of the room.

Rodney looked over and they shared a look, communicating with their eyes. Then John called the attending doctor over - Kamaria Willows by the name sewn into the white jacket that some of the medical staff still wore. "I was wondering if you could go get Carson for me? I'd like to know when I can get out of here," he said with his most charming smile, his voice not giving any hint to the plan.

Kamaria looked at John closely. She knew that look very well, had seen it on his face many times. Walking over she checked his chart and looking at the neat print written and underlined several times. _No release before noon_, written by Dr Beckett's hand. She looked over his chart again and saw that noon was just a precaution, that no harm could be done by letting him escape early.

Finally she shut the chart and looked at the Colonel, a conspiratorial smirk on her face. "I'll get Dr Beckett, but it might take a while. I have no idea where he might be."

John was surprised but then grinned at her as he got her meaning. So, the guard turns out to be a double agent, he thought. Kamaria wandered off in the opposite direction that they both knew Dr Beckett was in.

It took a couple of minutes for Rodney to help the stiffly bandaged John into the uniform he had smuggled in. It took some doing with the amount of bandaging holding his ribs together. Ten minutes later found the pair sitting on a hidden balcony that Rodney was certain only they knew about, Atlantis hiding them from the sensor net.

* * *

Kamaria gave Sheppard and McKay fifteen minutes to vanish and then made her way to the CMO's office. There she found the Scotsman up to his elbows in paperwork. "Dr Beckett? Colonel Sheppard is asking to speak to you," she reported from the doorway.

Carson looked up and dropped the pen he was writing with. "You didn't leave him alone, did you?"

"Was I not supposed to?" she asked, putting her studies of the fine art of false innocence to use.

Beckett stood up from his desk and walked out to the main infirmary room. The Colonel had made good his escape, leaving behind neatly folded scrubs on his pillow. "As a note for the future, don't leave Colonel Sheppard or Dr McKay unsupervised when they're in the infirmary." Carson grumbled to himself but knew that John could have been released before noon without problems. He wasn't that irritated but this wouldn't stop him from handcuffing Sheppard to the bed the next time he was injured.

"I don't think he's going to chase after us," Rodney stated after they hadn't heard from Carson Beckett after two hours relaxing on the hidden balcony.

"For once," John added on with a smile. The pair laughed. Between them they would have quickly ran out of fingers and toes if they tried to count how many times they had tried to escape the infirmary before they were due to be released.

The Colonel stopped laughing abruptly and groaned, his uninjured arm coming up to his Ace-bandaged chest. Rodney looked at the man sitting next to him in concern. "You alright?"

"We split before Carson's newbies got me that painkiller. I'll be fine." I've had broken bones before, he didn't add. Rodney got what he was trying to say though and tried to cease his mother-henning.

They waited another hour before Rodney began complaining of being hungry. It took twenty minutes for the scientist to wake the dozing Sheppard and badger him into heading to the mess. By now John felt worse and they stopped by his quarters to grab some acetaminophen. The number of times John had been healed with magic had given him a resistance to its affects, preventing him from taking care of his broken ribs quickly. Pulling the packet from his pocket John took the moment to add the seven arrowheads pulled from his body to his collection. Shortly they were standing in line for food in the mess.

"You know, I really love the first day after a delivery by the _Daedalus_," Rodney stated as he carried the tray laden with both their meals to a table.

"And if you get in early enough you get the best pickings," John commented, carefully settling himself in the chair next to Rodney. "Don't you have any work to do today?" He inquired after digging into his sandwich one-handed.

"Zelenka's keeping an eye on my staff. He's got the rookies running diagnostics on everything we have to get them used to our systems. I've got some stuff that you probably wouldn't understand to look over but I can do that..." Rodney trailed off as he looked at the woman approaching their table.

Sophie St. Claire approached the table hesitantly, having been audience to one of her supervisor's rants and not wishing to be on the end of one. "Doctor McKay, can I have a word with Colonel Sheppard?"

Rodney surveyed the new member of his staff - what was her name? - critically before looking over at John. They communicated without words before he sighed. "I'm going to go find my laptop. I'll be back in ten," McKay said before finishing his coffee and disappearing in the direction of his lab.

"Take a seat," John said, gesturing to the chair across from him. Sophie didn't sit down, prompting him to ask, "How can I help you?"

"Colonel, I'm Dr Sophie St. Claire, I'm one of the new scientists who came in on the _Daedalus_. I was wondering if I could speak to you privately?" She looked around at the numerous people who could overhear the conversation.

John agreed and stood up with some difficulty, following Sophie out of the mess. He ran into the returning Rodney outside, along with the doctor who had aided in his escape and one of his new Marines, a Captain. Captain Willows snapped to attention as he saw Colonel Sheppard approaching and was waved back into his relaxed position. After some discussion, Rodney returned to the mess to finish his meal while the others entered a nearby storage room for some privacy.

Not that their desire for privacy prevented the chief scientist from tapping into the sensor net from his laptop and watching a live feed.

It took a moment for the newcomers to decide how to start and John took the time to take a seat on what looked like a crate of toilet paper. Finally Sophie took a deep breath and faced the Colonel and began to speak.

"Half a league, half a league,  
Half a league onward,  
All in the valley of Death  
Rode the six hundred:  
'Forward, the Light Brigade!  
Charge for the guns' he said:  
Into the valley of Death  
Rode the six hundred."

Sophie quoted the first verse of the famous poem in a lilting voice and it felt like ice trickled down his spine. Her voice had an unfamiliar French accent, but John recognized 'Charge of the Light Brigade' by Alfred 'Lord' Tennyson. His own Brigade had used the poem as an identifier when they were to meet while under glamour or in disguise. Captain Willows recited the second verse and his wife the third.

Suspicion took root in John's mind. He'd dealt with creatures that could pull information from unwary minds before, Wraith included, and there were more mundane ways that could be accomplished. In a quiet part of his mind the Colonel was shocked that, after coming to the Pegasus galaxy and dealing with what felt like dropping into a science fiction novel, he now considered the Wizarding World mundane. Pulling the Brigade's password on him would be the easiest way to gain his trust and John didn't want to fall into a potential trap.

Rodney, from where he was spying in the mess hall, was surprised to see John whip out his handgun and point it at the trio. He couldn't hear what was said - the sensor net didn't include audio - but presumed John was demanding they disarm themselves. Rodney watched Captain Willows drop his standard issue handgun and knife on the floor and Doctor St Claire remove a knife hidden in the cane she held. Two more knives joined the pile on the floor from identical waist holsters from both women while Willows pulled a knife from each boot. Finally, three sticks of wood were removed from wrist holsters.

"John? Is everything alright in there?" Rodney asked over the radio.

**"Everything's peachy, McKay,"** John replied, although the scientist could hear tension in his voice. **"If you wanted to know what's going on you could have just asked instead of hacking the sensors,"** the Colonel added. Rodney huffed and ended the connection, going back to silently watching.

"How do you three know that," John demanded once Rodney couldn't hear.

One by one all three unbuttoned jackets and rolled up their sleeves to expose a very familiar tattoo. A gold sunburst with crossed blue saber and grey staff, surrounded by small grey stars, decorated their shoulders. Lowering his gun slightly John walked forward, testing each tattoo with his magic.

Finally he holstered his handgun and looked them over, noticing the similarities that he had ignored before. The doctor that helped with his escape had to be Luna, the scientist with the cane would be his sister Hermione and the Marine Captain was Neville. The eighteen years since he had seen them had changed them but once he knew what to look for it was clear.

Kamaria grinned and took the opportunity to come forward and hug him tightly, followed closely by Sophie. John smirked over the two women's shoulders at Frank before wincing as Sophie pulled a little tightly on his injured ribs. "Watch it," he told his old friend. "I'm still a little battered."

Sophie and Kamaria pulled back, Kamaria returning to stand with her husband. Sophie looked up at John, holding his hand. "You idiot," she chided him, French accent coming out strongly, "didn't you ever learn to dodge? Kamaria told me you took seven arrows. Seven! You're not invincible you know, despite how much you pretend to the contrary. What if they had been poisoned?" John rubbed the back of his neck. Eighteen years apart hadn't changed her at all.

"Sorry?" the Colonel offered sheepishly.

"You haven't changed at all," Frank told his CO as he bent down and retrieved his weaponry. The two women took the moment to do the same, knives disappearing into sheaths and wands returning to their holsters.

John frowned. "I've changed some," he said. "A lot has happened in eighteen years." He shook his head trying to get the sad thoughts out.

_-Warning/greeting-_ brushed John's mind and he looked up at the ceiling in confusion. "What now?" he asked Atlantis' sentience, ignoring the odd looks from his friends. He'd tell them about Atlantis later. An image of _-Rodney walking away from his table, heading towards their location-_ appeared in his mind. The Colonel sent a feeling of gratitude towards the city for the warning and turned back to his curious friends.

"We're going to have company in a minute," John told the trio and looked over to the door just as Rodney entered. "I told you if you were curious you could just come listen," he informed the scientist with a smile.

"What on earth is going on here?" Rodney took in the room with a glance, frowning at the scientist who still held John's hand.

John let go of Sophie's hand and gestured to the three newcomers with it. "Old friends from when I still lived in England. That's Captain Frank Willows and his wife Doctor Kamaria Willows. Great people to have around in a pinch," he added. "And this is the closest thing I'll ever have to a sister, Doctor Sophie St Claire."

Frank looked at the two and gestured towards the door. "We've got to split, I'm due back on duty in fifteen minutes."

Kamaria smiled and patted John's arm. "And Doctor Beckett is expecting me back as well."

"We have to find time to talk later," Sophie put in. Then she seemed to remember something and pulled a parchment envelope from a pocket. "The Secretary asked me to give you this, I'd read it quickly. It's supposed to be time sensitive."

John took it, the feel of parchment between his fingers odd after years of mundane life. "How is the old man?"

"Looking to retire, again," Sophie put in before she looked at her watch. "I've got to get to the labs. Dr Zelenka has me going over gate diagnostics." She looked like she wanted to say more but settled for hugging the taller man briefly.

Once the three had left Rodney turned to John. "What was that about?"

The Colonel surveyed McKay, mind working quickly. He had been coming closer to the decision he was about to make for some time and had kept putting it off. One crisis after another had prevented him from sitting down with Rodney and explaining about the world he had come from.

John sat back down on the crate and put the envelope in his pocket. "Take a seat, this might take a while." Obligingly Rodney pulled up a crate of his own and sat down. John turned to the ceiling but the brush against his mind was smug – Atlantis had anticipated his request and the sensors in the room were disabled. The Colonel gave her a mental pat on the back and left her to her smugness. The city deserved it as hard as she'd been working recently.

It took him a moment to get things mentally together before he turned to Rodney. "I'm obligated by law not to tell you any of this so keep it quiet, ok?" This got a confused nod and John continued. "I haven't told you much about my life before I moved to the States. Sophie, Kamaria and Frank were very good friends from England. I met them when I was eleven. We went to the same boarding school and became friends."

John paused for a moment and decided to go for broke. "You're a very logical man, Rodney, so I don't think you'll believe what I have to say without proof." He picked up a can - what use did they have for pickled herring? - and held it in both hands, closing his eyes. "Watch."

Rodney was confused but could tell this was a serious topic for John, whatever the hell the topic was. He wondered what he was supposed to be watching for but then saw the tiny freckles that seemed to cover almost every inch of Sheppard's body - or what he had thought were freckles - turn black, then flash silver. An instant later John was holding a squirming kitten.

It took a moment for Rodney's mind to catch up to what he was seeing. He took the kitten John handed to him numbly before gathering his senses and inspected it thoroughly. "How?" was all he could manage.

"Magic." This statement seemed to knock the scientist for a loop and John used the opportunity to pull something invisible to Rodney's eyes from around his neck. A necklace shimmered into existence and the Colonel unclipped what looked like a charm of a trunk from the chain. This he dropped to the floor and another flash of silver from what couldn't be real freckles had the charm expanding into a large steamer trunk with three different keyholes.

John touched the first keyhole with a fingertip and there was a click as the lock disengaged. Inside the different compartments was everything pertaining to his Wizarding life that could possibly be helpful or that he wanted to keep close to him. Kneeling in front of his trunk he dug around and came out with a thick photo album. This he gave to Rodney, taking the kitten from him and reversing the transformation. McKay opened it slowly, still convinced he would wake up in a minute and find this had been all a dream.

The first page featured a large picture of a mother and father holding a newborn. "Lily and James Potter," John said as he looked at the picture. "They're my parents." Rodney was startled to see the woman look up from studying her child and smile widely at the Colonel. Without having to ask, Rodney's question was answered. "In the magical world, photographs can move. Full portraits even have sentience and can hold conversations. They can visit other portraits in the same building and can walk back and forth between copies of their portrait."

Sheppard began to talk, advancing through the photo album as time passed in his story. He spoke of his parents and the Halloween where Tom Riddle, alias Voldemort, surviving the curse that had killed his parents. He talked about the Dursleys and how he was left in their care. When John tried to gloss over how they treated him Rodney caught it. This prompted one of the more candid recollections of his life at No 4 Privet Drive.

With a turn of the page in the photo album John began to detail his years at Hogwarts. His first year and the encounter with Flamel's Philosopher's Stone, meeting his eventual blood-siblings Hermione and Ron, finding a place he could belong. His encounter with the basilisk, his godfather's escape from Azkaban and the new body obtained by Voldemort. More time was spent on his fifth year and the public acknowledgment by the Ministry, paid for in blood with the death of Sirius Black.

Not that the Ministry had done anything to help in the fight against the magical terrorist group. It had fallen to John to organize his 'study group' to fight off an attack on Hogwarts castle while the Ministry had debated whether or not the intelligence gained from Draco Black was valid and hadn't shown when the call for help went out.

"After the Ministry didn't do anything, we kind of realized we were on our own. They were just dragging their feet while people were being murdered left and right. Hermione, Ron and I worked to turn our study group into something that could make a dent in Voldemort's forces. We got together with some retired Aurors - they're the law enforcement in the Wizarding world - and taught ourselves how to really do some damage."

John was quiet for a while, mind going back to the early days of his militia. After gathering his thoughts he spoke about studying nonmagical forms of combat and organizing the volunteers much like the military would.

Then he talked about how Draco Black got the details on where Voldemort's hideout was. John shared how they were outnumbered almost two to one in their fight but that it was against poorly trained and lazy men. "Skill won over numbers in the end but we took heavy losses. By the time I got to Voldemort's location almost half of our number had been killed. We were successful but when the idiots at the Ministry heard of us the first thing they thought of was to exploit us. A friend inside the Ministry got a warning to me. We knew the Minister's modus operandi and got out of Dodge."

By now they were three quarters through the photo album and a turn of the page revealed non-magical photographs. "With the help of the Secretary of Magic - he's the elected leader of the United States' Mage Community - I settled down in California. The Force paid for college - not that I needed help - and I got to fly again with them. Granted it wasn't on a broom but the jets go faster than anything magic can create. You know my life from there."

Rodney had been sitting quietly, trying to take all this in. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

John sighed. "I told you, I could be sent to prison for telling you this. There's laws that maintain the secrecy of the Wizarding world and prevent nonmagical people from learning about it." There was silence in the storage room as John took the photo album from Rodney and replaced it in the trunk, returning the trunk to miniature size and clipping it to the invisible necklace.

"What was with the freckles?" Rodney asked after a moment.

"Hmm? Oh," John looked at his arms, then closed his eyes. The freckles darkened into black spots all across his body, including his face. "They're runes. There's an entire field of magic devoted to the study and manipulation of runes. Since carrying a focus would be pretty obvious, and I wanted to stay under the radar as much as possible, I looked into a way that I could cast without detection. I can focus my magic through the runes on my wrists and hands, no wand required."

"What about the rest?"

John grinned. "It was difficult to figure out how to but the rest of the runes can induce an artificial morphogenic field. If I have a good enough visualization in my mind, I can shapeshift. Unfortunately it takes a very detailed mental picture so there are relatively few things I can shift into. I keep a mental file of each form."

Eyes wide, Rodney insisted, "Can I see one?"

Nodding, John brought up the mental picture of one of the first forms he had developed. Invoking the runes covering his body the world seemed to get larger and larger. His sight got sharper, colors faded to shades of gray and sounds were amplified by his sensitive ears.

Rodney looked at the grey cat working its way out from John's clothes. It had the same eyes as the Colonel and had darker grey spots covering its light grey coat. The cat that was John jumped down from the crate he had been sitting on and made his way over to Rodney, eventually curling up on his lap.

The scientist looked down at John. "This is very weird," he told the cat. "Very, very weird." John's whiskers twitched forward in a feline laugh that Rodney was familiar with. It suddenly struck McKay how much he missed Naquadah, his cat that he had to leave on earth. He hoped the girl down the hall was taking good care of him.

An interruption brought a bit of normalcy to the situation. **"Rodney, can you come to lab? Dr Wythe, new scientist I had doing Puddle Jumper diagnostic, did something and now computer is refusing access to systems,"** Radek's voice over the radio broke through Rodney's stunned mind.

"I'm on my way," Rodney told the Czech and shut off the connection. He looked down at John. "You're going to have to get up. Radek needs me in the lab."

Reluctance screaming from his posture, John stood and jumped down from Rodney's lap. He padded over to stand next to the crate he had been sitting on earlier before shifting back into human form. The second time watching it didn't make the process seem any less weird to Rodney.

When he was fully human, John began pulling on his boxers and pants. "What happened in the lab?"

"The idiot who messed up my whiteboard yesterday has screwed with the computer and Radek needs my help," McKay said as he stood up.

"Give me a hand with this bandage," the Colonel requested as he attempted to re-wrap his ribs. That was the problem with his brand of shapeshifting - anything he was wearing didn't make the shift with him, unlike normal Animagi. It took a minute for the scientist to securely wrap the ribs, doing almost as good of a job as the medical staff had done. He'd had enough experience bandaging John to be decent at it.

When he was fully clothed John mentally asked Atlantis to return the sensor net in the room to normal. After that he turned to Rodney. "Are you... ok with this?"

"You're still you, John. You're just more interesting than I thought."

* * *

After Rodney left to go fix whatever disaster the new scientist had caused John pulled the parchment envelope from his pocket. He broke open the wax seal and quickly read the note, then read it again to make sure what he found was real. Since it was straight from the Secretary of Magic, it probably was accurate although John didn't want to know how he found this information out. He made a few quick decisions and exited the storage room.

His first stop was Elizabeth Weir's office. The commanding officer of the Atlantis Expedition was in the middle of signing requisition forms and was grateful for the interruption.

"What can I do for you, John?" she inquired after signing her name with a flourish.

John pulled out one of the two pieces of paper that had been delivered in the envelope. It was the non-magical version of the parchment from the Secretary of Magic, a form letter identical to the many he had to write when someone under his command had been killed in action. He handed the letter to Elizabeth. "I got a message in the _Daedalus _mailbag. I need to get back to Earth. My godfather, Remus Lupin, is dying."

Elizabeth understood and handed the letter back to John. Concern colored her voice as she replied, "You can take a Puddle Jumper back to Earth through the Midway station. Do you plan on going alone? How much time do you need?"

"I'm already on medical stand down for a week and I've got some leave saved up. Could you do without me for two weeks?"

Elizabeth nodded her agreement and pulled a form from a filing cabinet, filling out the authorization for Earth-side leave. "Go fill in Major Lorne and tell your team that they've got an extra week of stand down. You can leave tomorrow morning, 0900 hours."

John smiled gratefully. "Thanks Elizabeth," he said. "I better go pack." As John left Dr Weir's office she pulled out another request for leave form and began filling it out. Elizabeth knew it would be needed and would rather do the writing now than later.

The Colonel's next stop was the office of Evan Lorne. Surprisingly he was there and the two military men hashed out a plan for the time John would be out of touch. The planned 'Pegasus Galaxy 101' class at the Alpha Site for the new Marines would go forward, as would the weapons training for the civilian contingent. John wasn't as worried as he could have been. Lorne would take care of his city.

Third on his list of people to inform were Teyla and Ronon. The Satedan was having dinner in the mess while Teyla was still on the mainland. It took longer to explain to Ronon what a godfather was than to tell him of his upcoming two weeks on Earth. Ronon promised to tell Teyla what had happened when she got back to the city.

Finally he headed towards the labs to talk to Rodney. He ran into the scientist coming out of the second lab. "Is the new doctor still alive?" John asked.

"He'll wish he wasn't if he screws up the mainframe like that again," Rodney frowned before looking at John closely. "What's wrong?"

"That letter Sophie gave me? It was from the Secretary of Magic, it said that Remus Lupin is dying. I've talked to Elizabeth, I'm taking a Jumper through Midway tomorrow at 0900. I'll be gone for two weeks," the Colonel told him.

"Alone?" Rodney asked and frowned when John nodded. "Not anymore. I'm coming with you." When John went to speak the scientist spoke over him. "No, you don't get a choice. You're not going to go alone. Besides, I have as much leave saved up as you do. I think Elizabeth would be glad to get both of us out of her hair."

John laughed, knowing that was probably correct. "You go pester Liz, I've got to go pack." He paused for a moment before saying, "Thanks."

Rodney nodded in acknowledgment before looking at his watch. "I've got to get up to see Elizabeth before she packs up for the night. Meet you in the mess in an hour for dinner?"

Rodney didn't give John a chance to say anything else as he turned and headed towards the nearest transporter. When he finally got to Elizabeth's office the scientist didn't have the chance to say a word before a piece of paper was being thrust in his face. After taking it he looked it over - exactly what he had been coming to request. "How'd you know I wanted leave?"

Elizabeth smirked. "I know you and knew that when John came asking for some time off I had better have one of these made up for you." Rodney just stared at her. "Why are you still here? Don't you need to go pack?"

That question had Rodney running out of her office with a quick "Thanks!" thrown over his shoulder.

* * *

The next morning found Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay seated in a Puddle Jumper, headed back to Earth.

* * *

_AN: Well, I finally got past the whole explanation of John's past. That took forever to write... Anyways, hope you like the chapter and please review, it really does make a writer write faster._

_ -Ravenfur_


	3. Chapter Three

**The Light Brigade** _by Ravenfur_

_ AN: This chapter dedicated Don S. Davis, the actor who played Lieutenant General George Hammond, who passed away June 29, 2008 from a heart attack._

_ Disclaimer: I don't own the Stargate series, nor do I own the Harry Potter books. I do own anything unrecognized._

**Chapter Three**

Major General Hank Landry had been startled when he was called into the control room at about 2000 hours and informed that a wormhole had just opened using the Midway IDC. Knowing his plans for a quiet dinner at his house were probably going to be scrapped, Landry ordered the iris opened and the expected Puddle Jumper emerged from the event horizon.

Somehow Landry wasn't surprised to see Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard tossing him a salute from inside the cockpit. He had CMSgt Harriman direct the Puddle Jumper to the cargo bay set aside for large machinery and send the pair to check in with him. Landry returned to his office and sighed.

John Sheppard powered down the Puddle Jumper after parking it in the cargo bay. Rodney already was struggling with the second of two bags he had packed for the two weeks leave and turned to see John looking at him. "Give me a hand with this," the scientist ordered.

Sheppard collected his own two bags and grabbed what turned out to be a very heavy and clinking duffel. "What's in this thing?"

Rodney shrugged as John set the bag down and opened it. "It's just some stuff from the lab that might be useful," was all he would say. The Colonel looked at the assortment of Alteran technology, all of which was related to healing and medicine. There was even an Alteran healing device, a fully functional one instead of the damaged one the sarcophagus technology of the Goa'uld was based on.

Seeing the duffel bag full of healing gear brought home the reality of Remus' situation. John had been trying not to think about the fact that he might lose the last connection to his parents. The fear that he had been studiously ignoring rose again. What if he didn't get there in time? The _Daedalus_ takes three weeks to make it to the Pegasus Galaxy and Atlantis. What if Remus was already dead and this was just a trip to visit his grave? What if the werewolf was still alive but none of this could help him?

Sheppard closed his eyes and shoved those thoughts out of his mind. They wouldn't help at all and it wasn't anything he could control. When he opened his eyes John saw Rodney looking at him in concern. He smiled sadly. "Thanks," the Colonel murmured before drawing McKay into a hug. They stayed like that for a moment before Rodney pulled away.

"We've better get going, General Landry's waiting." Rodney opened the rear hatch and took the lighter of John's own bags. The pair quickly made their way to the General's office toting their gear.

Landry's confusion was plain when they entered his office. The situation was explained to the General who understood why they had taken a Puddle Jumper instead of waiting for the three week return trip on the _Daedalus_. After some obligatory complaints from Rodney when Landry mentioned the SGC scientists wish to take a good look at some of the Puddle Jumper's controls, Sheppard and McKay exited the General's office.

"Now where exactly are we going?" Rodney asked as they were getting situated in their rental car.

"First stop is an Intercontinental Floo. They're cheaper and faster than mundane travel. The nearest is in Denver," John said as he sat down behind the wheel of the car. "The letter I got from Secretary Juno was a little sparse but he said he would tell me more when I got in so the second stop is the Pentagon."

"The Pentagon?"

John smiled. "It's larger than the mundane world likes to believe. The Department of Magic is housed with the Department of Defense, although the magical part of the building is on the uppermost floor, hidden with a series of enchantments. Manny's office is there. He's probably not in though so we'll have to stop by tomorrow morning."

"Manny?" To Rodney it felt like he was a chapter behind where John's mind was and he hated the feeling.

"Herman Juno. He was in charge of the United States Military's Special Magical Forces and gave me some training before the war began to really heat up. After he had been elected as Secretary of Magic he helped me get situated here with a new identity. He owes me a couple of favors so I asked him to keep an ear out for any news about my friends."

"And what's a Floo?" This explanation lasted through the first ten minutes of their drive, branching out into other modes of Wizarding transportation such as Portkeys and Apparition.

Rodney shot him a sidelong look. "So, travel by fireplace to DC, spend the night and then visit the Pentagon in the morning?" John nodded. "Then what?"

John sighed. "Depending on where Moony is we've probably got a transatlantic flight ahead of us. Magical travel doesn't do saltwater that well. Portkeys are alright but I hate them. I'm not going to take one if I don't have to. Plus a portkey trip would probably kill my ribs."

The rental car was quiet as they made the journey to Denver. Occasionally Rodney would ask a question about life in the magical world and John explained as best he could. McKay was still a little uncertain about traveling through fireplaces across the continent but compared with some of the things that they had seen in their time with the Stargate program, fireplace travel wasn't the oddest.

When they arrived in downtown Denver it took John a few minutes to find what looked like an overgrown dirt parking lot in front of an abandoned office building. "Are you sure you've got the right place?"

John pulled in and parked the car. "Ostendo," he whispered and laid a hand on Rodney's shoulder. The runes running down the Colonel's arms flashed silver. There was a disorienting moment when all Rodney could see was a wash of bright colors and when his sight returned to normal the run down office building was replaced by a gleaming silver building. The parking lot was well-kept and dotted with other cars. "That will allow you to see through the mundane disguises, the ones that keep the nonmagical world from finding out about us."

Rodney looked at the building, the sign out front labeling it as the Rocky Mountains Transportation Hub. "Transportation Hub?" he questioned.

Getting out of the rental car, John grabbed the bags he had been carrying. "This is one of four scattered across the United States. It handles everything transportation in this region, from Floo regulation, Portkey creation and testing, Apparition testing and authorization, patents for racing brooms and suchlike."

"Racing brooms?" This prompted an enthusiastic description of both brooms and the sport of Quidditch. Rodney was unsurprised that John owned the fastest mode of transport that the hidden world provided and figured that was where his love of flight had developed.

Wincing as he shifted the heavy duffel filled with Alteran technology, John was forcibly reminded that he should have taken Carson up on his offer of prescription painkillers instead of making due with over the counter acetaminophen. Wanting to get the trip over as soon as possible, the Colonel led McKay into the silver office building and up a flight of stairs, ending up in a room walled on all sides by fireplaces.

Each fireplace was labeled with the destination because unlike normal Floo you could only go to a set fireplace with Intercontinental powder. To get around the distance restriction, the United States Mage community had set up the transportation hubs across the continent - you could Floo a hub and then from there Floo your final destination. John had first learnt about this when he moved to the United States. Britain was small enough that it could be connected to a single Floo network, which could only handle shorter distances between grates.

Fifteen dollars each paid to the attendant in the middle of the room got them each about a cup of sparkling copper powder. Powder in hand, John guided Rodney towards the grate labeled 'Reagan National Airport' and walked him through the Floo process. "Now, the trick is to keep walking as you are pulled along. That way you won't fall flat on your face when you get to where you need to go."

Rodney looked at the cupful of Floo powder skeptically and held still while John adjusted the two duffel bags slung over his back to sit more securely. The powder was tossed into the grate and turned the orange flames a bright copper. McKay stepped into the flames clearly expecting to get burnt and was surprised to feel only a slight warmth.

Then the world dissolved around him and he was flying along in a tunnel of copper light, spinning so much that he was glad Stargate travel had gotten him over any remnants of motion sickness. Remembering John's advice he began to walk although walking while spinning like a top was decidedly weird.

About thirty seconds into his trip Rodney could see a bright light at the end of the copper tunnel. What turned out to be another grate approached quickly and soon he was blinking at the bright light compared to the dim copper and stumbling out into a busy wing of Reagan National Airport. After the fireplace spat him out the copper flames returned to normal.

A few minutes later the fire turned colors again and John walked out of the flames, the arm not holding on to a bag curled protectively around his broken ribs. He was looking forward to taking more painkillers once they found a hotel room but was stubborn enough that he could shove the pain aside. Focusing on what was going on in the magical terminal of the DC airport, John turned to Rodney. "How'd you like the trip?"

A little dizzy after going from spinning to stationary, the physicist looked around. "A lot faster than taking a plane," Rodney conceded. "Are you alright?" he added when the pained look on John's face and how stiffly he was holding himself became apparent.

"Floo doesn't agree with broken bones," the Colonel said as he shifted the two bags he carried to a better position. "Anyways, let's go find a hotel room for the night."

"This has to be the smallest room in the hotel."

"Just be happy that we have a room."

"A room the size of a Puddle Jumper? We've been held in prison cells larger!"

"It's got a bed, a shower and a TV. What more do we need?" Rodney huffed at this statement and John continued. "We're probably only going to be here for the night."

Rodney looked skeptically at the bed. "Do you know how bacteria infested hotel sheets and mattresses are?" He continued on this train of thought for some time, questioning the cleaning ability of the housekeeping staff and peppering his talk with dubious looks at the bed. John just let him talk as he settled his bags out of the way and finally took some painkillers.

When he finally ran out of steam Rodney glanced at John. The Colonel had carefully pulled off his jacket and was unclipping the strange invisible trunk from the equally invisible necklace. After a flash of silver from the freckle-like runes, the trunk was normal size again and the first compartment was opened. John rummaged around in the open compartment for a moment before withdrawing a copper chain. The amulet hanging on the chain was marked with a series of runes. "What's that?" Rodney questioned.

John tossed the amulet to his favorite geek. "In the magical world there's a segment of magic dealing with the mind. Legilimency is the closest thing the magical world has to mind reading, while Occlumency prevents Legilimency. I used this amulet when I was first learning how to use Occlumency. When you wear it, no one can affect your mind."

Rodney shivered at the idea of someone poking around in his mind and pulled on the copper amulet. Between the Atlantis expedition and the Stargate project, there was a lot of highly classified information in his brain. Not to mention instructions on how to build everything from naquadah generators to nuclear bombs. Definitely not the kind of thing the SGC wanted everyone to know.

The two went about their regular evening routine, finding themselves tired despite the fact that it was only about noon back on Atlantis. It took Rodney's help for John to get out of the t-shirt he was wearing, the broken ribs and the binding holding them together limiting his range of movement. When the pair was settled in bed, John propped up by pillows so he could more comfortably breathe, Rodney spoke.

"Why don't you," he twiddled his fingers on one hand in what the Colonel assumed meant magic, "your ribs better?"

John sighed and adjusted his position, pulling the scientist closer until the other man was curled up at his side. "Magic can do a lot of things but it's limited in other areas. Although magic can heal almost anything, as you keep using it to heal yourself it gets less and less affective with each use. I've been healed so many times that healing magic doesn't work on me anymore."

They talked about nothing important for a while to the background noise of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode before Rodney asked, "Can you tell me about Remus?"

"Remus was the third professor I had in my defense class at Hogwarts and the only one who taught anything worthwhile. He's a werewolf - yes, those do exist - and the only remaining friend of my parents alive. After we left England, Remus came to the States with me and got a job at the University of California teaching world history. We lived together while I was going to college and when I was done with basic training he got a job offer at the University of Oxford. I used to go see him every time my chance for leave came up but I haven't seen him in over five years. The last I heard of him he had just gotten married to his longtime girlfriend Nymphadora Tonks."

Rodney snorted at Tonks' first name and John grinned. "She hates her name too, so don't call her that if we see her. Anyways, I couldn't make the wedding because we were just shipping out to Atlantis and I didn't get a chance to see them the last time I was on leave."

McKay looked over at the taller man. "Are you alright?"

John opened his mouth to give a flippant answer and closed it when Rodney glared. Finally he sighed. "I'm... worried. Remy's family. I've lost enough family that I want to hang on to what I've got left. It takes three weeks for the _Daedalus_ to make it to Atlantis and Manny's note was dated a week before the departure date. There's too many 'what if' questions to begin to list."

Rodney sighed and looked at the sad look on John's face. Time to change the subject. "So, we're in a hotel room far from Atlantis, subordinates that want our attention and military personnel following the ridiculous 'Don't ask, don't tell' rule. What should we do?"

John matched Rodney's wicked smirk and rolled over on top of him. "I have a few ideas," the Colonel murmured against Rodney's lips before kissing him.

Lucy Johansen was the administrative assistant to the Secretary of Magic. She felt it a slight demotion to be known as a secretary but nobody paid attention to the help and it made her job as Herman Juno's bodyguard that much easier. Early one morning she was absorbed in unhexing a cursed letter that had slipped by their post department and when she finally looked up, Lucy was startled when she noticed the two men that had slipped in. She quickly looked over the two men.

One was a civilian, dressed in dark slacks and a jacket. He looked normal, the only things of interest were his eyes taking in every aspect of the magically enlarged room and the vivid hickey mostly covered by the collar of his dress shirt. The other man was a Air Force officer in dress blues. Lucy dismissed the civilian as no threat and surveyed the officer. He was highly decorated and from what she could see on his rank epaulets either a Major or Lieutenant Colonel. She could never keep straight mundane rank insignia and only color differentiated the oak leaves for those two ranks.

Lucy palmed her wand after a moment. The Air Force officer felt dangerous and it wasn't the numerous scars she could see over his exposed skin. Something about him reminded her of a predator.

The civilian was looking at the large window that took up one side of the outer office. The window itself was magical and currently was set to a view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, complete with a storm that was passing through Paris at the moment. He turned to the officer who was smirking. "There are so many things wrong with that right there that I can't even pick where to start!"

The Air Force officer - she'd go with Lieutenant Colonel, military men always liked it when you promoted them - smirked. "Magic, Rodney, remember?"

Lucy cleared her throat, attracting their attention. "Something I can help you with, gentlemen?"

The Lieutenant Colonel looked her over and she could tell he noted most - if not all - the upper body weapons she carried. "Can you let Manny know that John's here?"

Her boss' nickname prompted raised eyebrows from the secretary-cum-bodyguard. Herman Juno was an intensely private man and saved his nickname for his close friends. "John who?" she insisted. "And who's your friend?"

"Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, USAF," Sheppard introduced himself before waving over the civilian who was still absorbed in trying to figure out the window. "This is Rodney McKay," the Colonel began but was interrupted.

"_Doctor_ Rodney McKay," the other man stressed his title.

"Doctor Rodney McKay," Sheppard agreed.

Lucy frowned. "The Secretary is a very busy man and doesn't have time for everyone who walks in here."

Sheppard went to run a hand through his hair and winced, the raised hand going to his ribs. "He's expecting me, but didn't know exactly when I'd show up."

Shrugging, Lucy walked over to the door behind her and stuck her head through it. Herman Juno sat at his desk working on something to the background music of a Van Morrison song. When she opened the door the Secretary of Magic looked up.

"There's a Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard here," she began but was interrupted.

"Finally," Juno stated before standing and walking over to the door and opening it fully. "John you reprobate, get in here. It took you long enough to get here," he complained. The curious Lucy watched the two men retreat into the office with her boss and the door was firmly shut behind them.

Inside the office, Rodney took a second to look around. Herman Juno was a middle aged man with graying hair and dark brown eyes, wearing a normal enough looking grey suit. Another one of those odd windows occupied the entire wall behind the dark wood desk showing a view of a white sand beach.

"I sent that letter with Ms St. Claire a month ago! How long does it take to get back from wherever the hell you were?" Juno demanded as John carefully sat down in one of the chairs in front of the large desk. "And who's this?"

"Dr Rodney McKay, he works with me at the military base that I'm stationed at," John said as McKay ignored them and looked around the office, taking a moment to inspect the Wizbrand radio that was playing. While it was set to a mundane station, it was a purely magical device that didn't resemble any mundane radios. "It took Sophie three weeks to get to the base I was stationed at, Manny. Now, what's going on with Remus?"

Herman sighed and dropped into the leather chair behind his desk. He pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it over to John. "I got this in the mail from one of my contacts in the UK."

John looked at the letter.

_Secretary Juno-_

_ John told me to send a letter to you through Will Bly if I needed to contact him. I hope you can get in touch with him as he's dropped completely off the radar. Tracking charms and Owls are useless and I hope you can help._

_ My husband Remus was attacked by a Hunter and is dying of a severe case of silver poisoning. There's nothing the healer that we've seen can do and no specialist would see a werewolf. With a normal case of silver poisoning in a Werewolf there are spells used to draw out the silver. With this curse those spells aren't working and the silver is multiplying in his blood._

_ Remus has been placed in a stasis field but it won't hold forever. Please get in touch with John, he might be able to do something. If you do find him, let him know we're staying at Twelve, he'll know what it means._

_ -Dora Tonks-Lupin_

John looked over the letter and sighed, rubbing his face with his free hand. He passed the letter to Rodney who had taken the other seat next to him. "Ah, Remy," he whispered before looking over to Herman. "When did you get this?"

Juno thought for a moment. "I got it two weeks before I passed it to Ms St. Claire, and man it took some digging to find out she was headed to the same base as you. Where in the world are you stationed? I had to call in several markers to find out just that little."

"I'd have to shoot you if I told you," John said with a smirk before he bit his lip. "Two weeks... I hope the stasis held this long."

Rodney looked up from the letter. "Stasis? How is a viable stasis field produced? Do you use something like the stasis chambers back on..." he glanced over at the curious Secretary and changed what he was going to say, "the base?"  
"It's a spell, it basically stops time around the person its cast on. Only recognized Healers are taught it because of the potential of abuse. I'm not sure if it's like the chambers, I know next to nothing about healing," John said before frowning.

"It doesn't sound much like the stasis chambers. I wonder if I could get someone to explain the mechanics of that to me?" Rodney mused.

"Speaking of Rodney," Sheppard began and the scientist turned to face the Colonel, "can you make an authorization card for him?" Juno nodded and pulled out a sheet of paper.

"Authorization card?" McKay repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"It's like a license, proof through the government that you're allowed to know about the magical world and can't be Obliviated if you see magic done."

"What's your full name?" the Secretary of Magic asked, looking up to Rodney.

"Dr Rodney McKay," the scientist said and John smirked.

"Full name, Mer," Sheppard insisted.

Rodney sent a paint-peeling glare at John - while John was one of the few people who could call him Mer without the threat of imminent revenge, he hated his first name. "Dr Meredith Rodney McKay," he ground out, mentally cursing his parents again.

Juno inked in the name and the enchanted paper filled in the rest of the statistics. When it was all filled out he tapped the piece of paper with his cherry wand. The paper shimmered and shrank down to the size of a drivers license, proclaiming that Dr Meredith Rodney McKay knew about the magical world and was authorized to keep that knowledge if he was involved in a situation that would have prompted his Obliviation. The card was handed to its recipient. "It will look like rewards card from one of the major bookstores to anyone who doesn't have one of their own or has magic. I'd keep it on you," Herman advised.

The three made small talk for a few minutes before Sheppard looked at his watch, anxious to get going. "Thanks a lot, Manny. I owe you big time."

"I owe you a life debt, John. I'm still paying you back for that."  
The two men got up to leave and Herman saw them to his office door. "Nice uniform, by the way," he told John. "Congratulations on your promotion. Last time I saw you, you were only a Captain."

Sheppard smiled slightly at the compliment. "Thanks. I can't stand wearing it though. Damn Pentagon dress code," he cursed.

"You look good in it," Herman told his younger friend. John glanced over at Rodney who was smirking. He had told John the exact same thing earlier in the morning.

"We've got to go track down a flight to London and grab our bags from the hotel. Thanks again," Sheppard said before heading into the outer office.

"Let me know how it goes with Remus when you get back in town," the Secretary of Magic told John as the two men left.

Rodney had been amused at how hard it had been for John to sit still for the four hour long flight from Dulles International to Heathrow. When he asked John why he was so fidgety, all the Lieutenant Colonel would say was, "I'm a pilot and we're all control freaks. We like to be in control of whatever we're flying in."

Going through customs had taken some time and made John glad that they had stored the duffel of Alteran healing equipment in the shrunken trunk clipped to his necklace. That would have been almost impossible to explain to the highly suspicious customs agents.

When they were out of the airport, John hailed a cab and directed it towards the Kings Cross rail station and from there it was less than a mile to Grimmauld Place. After paying the cab driver John and Rodney got out.

The neighborhood wasn't the best and the block of townhouses needed some upkeep. Number Twelve Grimmauld Place looked little better than the others in the row. Grass was patchy out front the house and the door to number Twelve could use a new coat of paint.

John looked around the deserted street and waved a hand in a circle. A ward formed around the two men, making them invisible to all eyes. Rodney eyed the purple dome that encompassed them curiously, poking it with a finger and wincing as it gave off a mild shock. Pulling the invisible trunk from around his neck, John opened it to the third compartment, which he had never shown anyone before.

In the third compartment were a lot of things that could get him in trouble with various governments around the world. The third compartment was his armory, carrying everything from P-90's, Beretta's, Kalashnikov's and other Earth weapons. There were also some less than ordinary weaponry including several of the different Wraith stunning weaponry, which had been collected from various dead enemies and would normally have been left behind with the Wraith corpse.

Rodney looked over John's shoulder at the open trunk and gaped. "Where the hell did you get all of that?"

Pulling out a Beretta and a waist holster, John passed the weapon and several full clips to Rodney and closed the trunk. Shrinking it again he donned the once more invisible necklace. "All the Earth weaponry is conjured. If you know a object in enough detail you can conjure a perfect working replica. The Wraith stuff I grabbed off corpses that we left behind. Nobody seemed to want it so I took it."

Rodney looked down at the same issue handgun that he carried off-world. "And why do I have this?"

"Put it on and don't be afraid to use it. Magical shields don't work against solid objects like bullets. Everyone in the Wizarding world is armed and even one syllable could kill. Magical people disregard mundane weaponry so if worse comes down to worse, as it usually does with us," John and Rodney shared a smirk, knowing that Murphy's law loved to focus on them, "you should be able to give as good as you get."

Before taking down the invisibility ward, Sheppard made sure the handgun had been donned and hidden by the jacket Rodney wore. Finally the pair stepped up the path and John knocked on the dark wood door of Twelve Grimmauld Place, over eighteen years since he left the Wizarding world.

_AN: Well, this one took absolutely forever to write. It's not as long as I would have liked but this is a good enough stopping point. Thanks for reading and please review!_

_ -Ravenfur_


	4. Chapter Four

**The Light Brigade** _by Ravenfur_

_ AN: Man, I am absolute crap at timely writing. At least I have the ending mostly plotted out so it won't take as long for the final chapter._

_ Disclaimer: I make no claim to the Stargate universe or the Harry Potter series. Anything recognizable I don't own, but anything unrecognizable I do._

**Chapter Four**

"Missy Dory?"A house-elf poked her head in the door, attracting Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin's attention.

Dora turned from her worried contemplation of the purple shield covering one bed in Grimmauld Place's small medical wing. "Yes, Trinnea?"

Trinnea moved fully into the doorway. "Two men come to door, Trinnea let in. John Sheppard, friend. In foyer," the house-elf reported.

Relief washed over Dora, maybe John would be able to help. "Trinnea, watch over the stasis field," she ordered the house-elf and exited the room. It was a short walk down to the foyer and an unfamiliar raised voice was the first thing she heard.

"Oh, please! Where did you get your degree? What told you it was a good idea to try to write a new program onto the control crystals? You should be lucky I'm across the planet right now! Stop messing around with the Jumper and leave everything as is, I'll deal with your mistake when I get back. You'd better pray that I can fix it!" There was a click as if a phone was shut.

"Do we still have a ride back?" That was John's voice.

"If they haven't completely overwritten the original program then that's a yes, otherwise we'll probably have to go back by the _Daedalus_ when it gets back in orbit."  
Confused, Dora opened the door to the foyer and watched John sigh, shaking his head at his companion. "I hope you can fix it, I can't stand another three week trip back home. I think I really would kill Caldwell this time, consequences be damned." He was in his dress blues with more ribbons than the last time she had seen him in them. There was a duffel at his feet and an arm was held protectively around his chest. "What were they trying to do?"

The one with the loud voice was shorter than John and wasn't as fit. Two more bags were dumped next to him and a cell phone was slipping into a pocket. Dora noted a handgun at his hip, something illegal in the UK. A disgruntled expression was on his face. "Those idiots decided that they wanted to test if the Jumper could accept Asgardian programming, mainly their beaming program. I don't know how Sam Carter hasn't killed them all and started over with their replacements."

Dora finally entered the foyer when their conversation seemed to be finished. "John, what took you so long?" she asked as she went to hug him. Her relief at his appearance was transmitted into her abilities, her hair turning a bright blue. She felt the bandaging through the uniform and stepped back. "And what have you done to yourself?"

"Training accident," John replied as he returned the hug. "I didn't block properly and got whacked in the ribs. Broke two of them." Rodney raised his eyebrow at the glib answer.

"Alright, what's the real story," Dora replied. "And who's your friend?"

John sighed before saying, "I got hit out on a mission and broke two ribs. This is Rodney McKay, he's a friend I work with. Rodney, this is Dora Tonks-Lupin."

They shook hands, Dora looking the scientist over. "Friend, eh?" She noticed the hickey but shrugged. "Whatever. Now what took you so long?"

"It took Manny two weeks to find a way to get a message to me, and three more weeks for that message to get there. I came as fast as I could," John defended himself. "How's Moony?"

Dora sighed. "Still in stasis. We're lucky it held this long. Come on, I'll take you to him." She clapped her hands and Trinnea popped into the room.

Rodney was startled and looked at the three foot tall creature clad in a toga made from what looked like a curtain in surprise. "What is that?" he whispered to John.

"A house-elf. They take care of the house, do the laundry, cook and clean," John whispered back.

"Trinnea, can you take their bags to one of the bedrooms?" Dora ordered the house-elf.

"Trinnea will do," she nodded and took the bags from the pair. Another pop and the elf was gone.

John and Rodney followed Dora to the medical room. There weren't many mundane signs that this was a medical ward. Inside one of the two beds was completely covered by the opaque purple stasis field. Along one wall were shelves full of potions.

Taking a close look at the stasis field, John noticed that it only had a few days before it gave way. "Alright, auntie Dora," John began, taking the shrunken trunk from around his neck and removing the bag of Alteran technology from the second compartment, "I need you to sign something for me." Opening up the bag he grabbed the sheaf of paperwork he had seen stuffed in between the silver devices.

Dora took the small stack that she was handed. "Nondisclosure agreement? National security? John, what have you gotten yourself into?" Despite her questioning she quickly read through the packet promising a lifetime in prison as the lowest punishment possible for breaking the agreement. With a wave of her wand she conjured a pen and signed her name where prompted.

"Liz slipped that to me," John told Rodney and collected the paperwork. "I had wondered what for but she must have known about the bag of healing equipment you smuggled out of the base."

"I didn't smuggle it!" Rodney was indignant. "I always take gear to study over leave. It just happened to be useful."

"Where did you get this stuff?" Dora asked, looking down at the bag of technology.

"I'll tell you later," John told her before looking over to Rodney. "What have you got?"

Rodney pulled out a few items. "Scanning devices," he reported and handed these to John.

Taking the gear, John looked at Dora. "You're going to have to take down the stasis field. I can't do anything with it up." Nervously Dora took down the purple field revealing a very pale Remus Lupin. There was more grey in his hair since the last time John had seen him. Remus was clad only in a pair of pajama bottoms and he was thin enough that his ribs were barely covered by flesh. The wrinkles on around his eyes and mouth were deep with pain despite his unconsciousness. Every single artery, vein and capillary were clearly visible, vividly contrasting the silver-blue of his blood against the reddened and blistering skin surrounding the blood.

The scanners, the Alteran equivalent of a Star Trek tricorder, began picking up information the second the field went down. It didn't take long for the full picture of Remus' condition to be drawn. "Rodney, did you grab a DNA sequencer?" John asked. The scientist rummaged around in the bag before coming up with a small silver device, a miniaturized version of the broken device the Goa'uld Nirrti used to try and create the perfect host. This he passed to John's outstretched hand. "Dora, do you have some sample of Remus' DNA from before he got attacked?"

Dora thought for a moment and then summoned Trinnea. "Please go grab Remus' hairbrush," she told the elf. Almost instantly the brush was being handed to Dora who passed it to John.

Taking one of the hairs from the hairbrush, John fed it into the DNA sequencer. It beeped and John set it on Remus' chest where it began to work. "The curse he was hit with is coating his DNA with silver. This should correct that," he began and studied the display on one of the scanners again. Turning back to Rodney, he asked, "Do we have something to filter blood?"

Rodney thought a second, and then pulled out a silver device, small and slim. "This should work, put it on a major artery. Jugular would probably be best. What do you need it for?"

"The iron in his blood has turned to silver," John reported before thinking at the device for a second. He placed it on the jugular vein and again there was a beep before the filter began to work, connecting to the vein and passing the blood through it, turning silver back into iron.

Taking out the fully functional Alteran healing device, John set it on the nightstand to the left of the bed and thought it on. A soft blue light began to emanate from it. "That will keep him alive long enough for the curse to be fully nullified and heal the burns from the silver in his blood and DNA. Let's leave the room, it's not a good idea to be in the same area as one of these if you are uninjured."

Across the street from number 12, Grimmauld Place, a man looking through a window picked up a radio. "Sir, this is observation, possible target acquisition."

There was a crackle of static before a voice responded. "Report, observation."

"Sir, two men went into the indicated house. One matches the description supplied. Orders?"

"Report the next time they leave the house. I need to get a look myself to confirm target acquisition."

"Yes sir. Observation out." He put down the radio and returned to his surveillance of the former Black Family Manor.

Fifteen minutes after leaving the medical wing, the three were sitting down to dinner in the kitchen. John and Rodney had changed out of the formal clothes they both had worn to the Pentagon. The unused Alteran gear was safely stored back in the shrunken and invisible trunk on the Colonel's necklace. Trinnea began passing out large bowls of beef stew and fresh cooked rolls.

"There isn't any citrus in this, is there?" Rodney looked doubtfully at the bowl of stew.

"I'm sure it's fine, Rodney. I've got a few Epi-pen's on me all the time anyways, not to mention the pile of healing technology." John accepted the bowl handed to him by Trinnea with a smile.

Trinnea looked at Rodney. "No citrus," she squeaked. Rodney nodded and dug in, surprised at how good it tasted.

"I don't know how you're hungry, you ate your lunch and mine," John watched him tuck in.

"I like airline food! Almost as good as MRE's," Rodney defended himself.

"The only thing worse than airline food is the junk the military puts in the MRE's," John retorted. He sighed and got back to the topic. "So what happened, auntie Dora?" the Colonel asked.

"Don't call me auntie, I'm not that much older than you," Dora said as she began to eat, amused at their banter.

"What happened?" John insisted.

Dora sighed and looked down at her bowl, blue hair going mousy brown as her mood shifted. "I'm not exactly sure. I was home on my day off and Remus' emergency portkey activated. It had a deadman's switch programmed into it so when he got hit by the curse he was portkeyed back here. He must have been attacked on his lunch break. Remus managed to whisper that a Hunter had found him before he fell unconscious.

"Minerva had Poppy come over to look at him," she continued.

"Minerva McGonagall, Hogwarts' headmistress, and the school healer Poppy Pomfrey. Poppy's probably the only reason I survived my time there," John told the confused Rodney, who nodded.

Dora sighed. "Poppy tried all the tricks she could think of for silver poisoning. She even had a friend at the Red Cross blood bank send over some blood so we could replace his blood but as soon as we started the transfusion the silver was back."

After a long quiet moment, the metamorphmagus continued. "St Mungos, the largest wizarding hospital," she explained to Rodney, "wouldn't have anything to do with a Werewolf. Poppy got a consult with one of the Healers there who recommended putting him in stasis until they came up with a working treatment plan. That was three months ago. A month and a half ago I sent Herman Juno that letter thinking that you might have some idea, anything."

Pausing to take a bite of the stew, Dora asked, "Alright John. Where have you been, why was it so bloody hard to get in touch with you, what was that stuff you used on Remus and why did I need to sign that paperwork?"

John reached up to scratch his head and winced, the hand going to his tightly bound ribs instead. "Uhm..." he wondered where to begin. He looked at Rodney. "Do you have your computer? And those pictures you and I have been taking?"

Rodney grinned. "Photographic proof. Good idea," he said and stood. The scientist paused. "Where's our stuff?" he asked Dora. He was led by Trinnea to their bedroom and came back with a tablet computer, which he began booting up.

Sheppard looked seriously at Dora. "I need your Vow that you won't tell anyone about what we're going to tell you," he insisted. "In the mundane world you're covered by the nondisclosure agreement but the magical world can get around that."

Vows were very serious things in the magical world. A person's magic would force them to keep to the terms of the vow and not break it. She held up her wand. "I, Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin vow not to speak of anything covered by the nondisclosure agreement to anyone unless John Sheppard allows me." There was a flash of magic from the wand sealing her oath.

"Do you believe in life on other planets?" John asked Dora as Rodney tracked down the file of pictures of the universe beyond Earth.

Confused at this apparent non sequitur, Dora nodded. "Well, for the past three years I've been living in the Pegasus galaxy, in a floating city that was built by a race called the Alterans."

Dora blinked. And blinked again. When her brain finally caught up with her, she took a big gulp of the drink in front of her, wishing it was alcoholic. "What?"

Rodney passed John the tablet computer and John looked down at it, and then opened a file. He held up the computer to show a picture of a large stone ring in a beautiful city, at least twenty feet high if the person in the picture was an indicator of scale. It had seven visible blue v-shaped devices around the dark metal rim but what was most interesting was what looked like a puddle of water suspended in it. The person in the picture - Dora thought she recognized the shaggy mop of hair - was actually walking out from the wall of 'water'.

"This is the Stargate. It was developed by the same race, the Alterans, that built the city we're living in now. To get to a specific planet you dial that planet's Stargate on a device called a DHD. Doing so establishes a stable wormhole between the two Stargates that you can walk through."  
Dora looked at the picture. "Earth has one of these?"

"Yeah," John said and both he and Rodney went on to explain the war against the Goa'uld, now mostly over, and the efforts of the SGC in the Milky Way galaxy.

Halfway through a description of what happened in Antarctica, John froze, a faint connection tugging at his mind. He closed his eyes and _-pain/amusement- _washed over his mind. "What's wrong, Lan?" he whispered down that tie to his city.

A picture bloomed in his mind. _-Kavanagh sitting at a lab table, tinkering with something that began to buzz loudly. The scientist backs away quickly and the device explodes violently, taking out two walls and ninety percent of Kavanagh's hair.-_

"Are you alright?" he asked the city, sending back _- comfort/love, - _disliking feeling her in pain. The mix of feelings he got back made him assume that, while having two of her walls demolished hurt a lot, her amusement at Kavanagh's predicament overcame that pain.

As John spoke to his city, Dora looked at Rodney. "What's he doing?"

"He's talking to Atlantis," McKay said as he started on his second bowl of stew.

"Atlantis?"

"That's the city we're living in. It's a city-ship built by the Alterans, capable of intergalactic travel. A long time ago it used to be on Earth but the Alterans got hit by a plague and retreated back to the Pegasus galaxy. We found the Stargate address and went to study it," Rodney explained.

John refocused back on the conversation, catching this explanation. "Well, Kavanagh finally got that haircut," he told Rodney.

"What happened?" his favorite geek asked.

The Colonel smirked. "Kavanagh was working on something in lab 4; it blew up taking down two walls and most of his hair. Lan is wounded but too amused to care."

"That's it!" Rodney exclaimed. "He's going back to the SGC when we get back. That's the third time this month he's blown something up."

"In a box?" John asked hopefully.

Rodney snorted, remembering their conversation before the _Daedalus_ arrived with much needed reinforcements and supplies. "I wish."

"Atlantis?" Dora repeated, still stuck on that concept.

"I'm the head of the military there, under the civilian command of Dr Elizabeth Weir. Rodney runs herd on the scientists and tries not to pull out his hair when they blow stuff up, get switched into other peoples bodies, infect the city with various viruses and other stuff like that."

They regaled the metamorphmagus with tales of their time in Atlantis, telling her about their various adventures and showing her pictures of the city and the Pegasus galaxy. Dora was amused at some and horrified at others. "No wonder every inch of you is covered in scars," she told John. "Do you have a death wish or something?" Rodney nodded in agreement. Concern over John's own safety was something he had tried to beat into Sheppard's head several times without success.

"It's my job to protect these people. The majority of the scientists haven't held a gun in their lives. Some, like Rodney," John smiled at his geek, "pick it up and can hold their own off-world, but the military still has a duty to protect those in our care."

Dora sighed. Once he played the protection card she knew she'd get no more out of him. Time to change topics. "So, how can you communicate with Atlantis?"

John shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure. She just likes me."

The gathering broke up not long after that, when John and Rodney both finished a second bowl of the stew. The three headed back to the medical wing to check on the progress the Alteran technology was making. Remus was looking better than Dora had seen him in some time but still was unconscious. The scanning devices showed that the silver in his blood and coating his DNA was drastically reduced, the blistering and burns created by his lycanthropic reaction to the silver were decreasing and that the Werewolf was stronger than he had been. Assured that the devices were working and that hopefully would cure her husband, Dora led the pair to their bedroom and then went to bed herself.

John and Rodney were sprawled on the queen size bed, watching some black and white horror flick on Rodney's laptop. Although it was late in London, almost midnight, their bodies were still set time-zones away, back where it was about noon Atlantis Standard Time.

"I'm ruined for horror movies. None of them really seem scary after all the crap we've been through," John said about an hour into the film as a woman screamed the ear-piercing screech common to bad horror movies.

Rodney agreed with that sentiment. "So what are we going to watch next? It's your turn to pick. And if you say _Back to the Future _again I'll hurt you."

Sheppard thought for a moment. "_V for Vendetta_," he offered.

"Sounds good," Rodney agreed and they fell silent again. About fifteen minutes later the scientist sighed and leaned more into John. "This is nice. We never get to sleep together."

That was true. Between the soldiers coming to John's door at all hours of the night, scientists asking Rodney questions at three in the morning AST and the life signs detector that the staff in the control room checked hourly to make sure there were only humans on Atlantis, the pair didn't get much chance to actually sleep in the same bed. While the 'Ronon and Teyla', 'John and Rodney' tent assignments that had long since become routine on off-world missions meant that they had the chance to sleep with each other on extended missions, sleeping together in an actual bed instead of sleeping bags on dirt was rare.

"Get some sleep, we're running tomorrow morning," John told Rodney. "We missed it today."

Rodney sighed. "Is there any way I can convince you otherwise?"

"You can practice your running for your life," John told the other man before closing his eyes. A moment later his breathing evened out and he fell asleep.

_The wraith's eyes bored into his, the pale face offset by what looked like black holes for eyes. The Colonel's hand twitched to his empty holster and he wondered for a second where his Beretta had gone. Two wraith warriors kept their grips on his arms despite his struggles to free himself. He was breathing heavily from the run to get away from the hunting wraith. Taking a second to look the wraith that held Rodney in its tight grip, feeding glands pressed tightly against the scientist's chest, John wondered how they were going to get out of this. _

_ "You thought running could save you? Pitiful humans," the wraith hissed sibilantly before draining Rodney of his life force. Rodney aged, looking fifty, sixty, seventy years old before the lifeless husk that had been the man he loved was discarded like an empty wrapper._

_ The wraith walked forward to John's frozen form and shifted, turning into someone John would have been thrilled never to see again, the supposedly dead Acastus Kolya. The two wraith keeping him from escaping morphed into two of the men that had escaped with Kolya the night of the hurricane in Atlantis, two of the over sixty that he killed. The Genii stalked forward, a evil smirk on his face. Pulling a knife that was already dark with blood from a sheath on his belt, Kolya ran the blade down John's cheek leaving a deep red line in its wake. "Don't be so tense, Sheppard," the dead man told John. "We've got all night to catch up."_

_ The Genii shifted his grip on the razor sharp blade before thrusting it into his chest and dragging it down, blood flowing from the open wound freely. John gritted his teeth before screaming in pain._

John woke with a start, lurching upright, scream stifled behind clenched teeth. He cursed quietly as his ribs told him in no uncertain terms that move was a bad idea. As he tried to get his breathing under control he felt the last remnants of the nightmare drift back to the corner of his mind reserved for all the things that scare him.

Kolya was dead, never to see the light of day again. Rodney was sleeping next to him, alive and healthy. The wraith were a galaxy away, not on Earth. There was nothing wrong, Sheppard told himself. Nothing wrong.

John climbed out of bed, careful not to wake Rodney, and pulled some pants over his boxers. He wouldn't be able to get back to sleep so there was no point trying. Four hours of sleep was good enough. He grabbed his copy of _War and Peace_ and exited the room.

The next morning, John was stretching as much as he could with his broken ribs taped up. Rodney, also in exercise clothes, looked down at the Colonel. "You're injured!"  
"We're still running," Sheppard told McKay.

Another excuse then. "Are you sure this neighborhood is safe?"

"We're still running."

"I really don't think you should be running with your ribs like that, what would Carson say?"

"We're still running Rodney," John said as he stood. He looked his geek over before frowning. "Where's your sidearm?"

McKay looked at the t-shirt and sweatpants he wore. "Not too easy to hide it in this and I don't want to get arrested by the first idiot in a uniform."

John searched their room before coming up with the holstered 9mil Beretta. Closing his eyes, there was a silver flash from the not-freckles before the holstered weapon disappeared. "Here, I don't want you unarmed. It's only the holster that's invisible, the second you take the Beretta out you'll be able to see it. Now let's go, we're wasting daylight. It's already 0800!"

Rodney sighed and awkwardly belted on the invisible holster. He did feel a little safer with it on.

The man across the street was watching as two men emerged from the indicated house and began running. He picked up his radio. "Sir, this is observation, target has left the house."

"Understood observation. Hold for one moment while I apparate to your location." There was static from the radio before a pop sounded in the room. The man that appeared was clothed in black robes and was fit to the normal lazy pureblood wizard's level of fitness. "What's the situation?"

Frommel Higginson, in charge of the observation post, reported. "Sir, what appears to be the target has left on a run with another man. Both are unarmed. They should be coming back though I am not sure when."

Han Sobel, fully trained Hunter and Tracker, nodded and joined his man at the window. It took a about an hour before the two men came running from the opposite direction they had left in. Sobel got a good look at their faces and grinned. "Target confirmed. You watch the house, I'll get the team together. Good work, Frommel."

"Thank you sir."

Remus fought his way through the haze in his mind, trying to figure out why he felt so awful. It felt like the worst hangover he had ever known combined with several bad transformations on the full moon. His eyes wouldn't open and even breathing took some effort. There was something metallic on his neck and another something metallic on his bare chest. He heard someone speaking near him and tried to focus on the voices he heard.

"6211," an unfamiliar voice said.

There was a short pause before a voice he thought he recognized replied, "Prime. 7435."

Another pause. "Not prime. 3538," the unknown person said.

"Not prime. 4021."

"Prime. 1229."

The familiar voice replied, "Prime. Hey auntie, do you want to play?"

"Don't call me auntie," his wife retorted. "What's this game?"

Remus recognized the voice now. "One person says a number and you have to say whether it's prime or not prime. It's the only way to keep the scientists occupied on long hikes off the base. Without something to think about they begin to get a little... squirrelly," his cub, John Sheppard said.

"I resent that remark," the unfamiliar person said.

"You resemble that remark, Rodney. The last hike we went on you badgered me about lunch while complaining about everything from the rain to how heavy your P-90 and pack were. I started Prime/Not Prime just to keep you occupied." John sounded smug.

"It was a five hour hike back to the Stargate! While mineral samples are certainly fascinating," this was said with a healthy dose of sarcasm, "with five hours of walking of course I was going to get bored!"

"Five minutes in?" John countered. Rodney, whoever Rodney was, refused to reply.

Remus was recovering more as he lay there, wondering what was going on. He remembered a man in a black clothes cornering him on his lunch break at Oxford, pulling a wand on him and talking. He remembered getting hit with the curse, feeling his deadman's portkey activate and seeing Dora's horrified face at the silver burns that were already appearing. After that... nothing.

He finally managed to get his eyes open, finding himself looking at the ceiling of the spare bedroom that had been set up as a medical ward years ago. To his left a strange silver cube glowing pale blue was humming slightly on the nightstand. Across the room from him his wife, oddly sedate in black hair today, sat with John and a man he didn't recognize. Remus opened his mouth to say something and croaked.

Three heads turned towards him and Dora almost cried with relief. "You're awake!" She got up and moved to sit on the bed next to him, taking a glass of water with a straw in it from the nightstand, helping Remus to drink from it.

"I told you he was going to wake up today," John told the metamorphmagus as he got up from his chair and took a silver device Rodney passed him, running it over the werewolf. He looked down at the information it was feeding him and smiled. "Just lay still, Moony. You're mostly healed. The devices just need to finish working."

Remus smiled tiredly at Dora. "How long?" he whispered, not having enough energy for anything else.

"Three months," she told the werewolf, feeling the last of her stress draining out.

Looking over at his cub and the man he didn't know, Remus asked, "And when did you get here? I've been trying to get in touch with you for years! What the hell have you been doing?"

John grinned. "I've been heading the military contingent of a highly classified base whose research has just saved your life. Once you're up to it you're going to need to sign a bunch of paperwork. I just flew in two days ago. You're really lucky to be alive, you old wolf."

As his godson and the man he didn't know helped him sit up, Remus inspected the new face. "And who are you?"

"Doctor Rodney McKay, I work with John on Atlantis. I'm the head of the scientific department there."_Just a co-worker, eh?_ Remus thought as his lycanthropically-enhanced sense of smell detected his cub's scent all over McKay.

"What exactly happened to you, Moony? Dora told us you said something about a Hunter but that you passed out before you could say more," John asked as he began deactivating the Alteran healing devices and setting them aside. Enlarging the shrunken trunk around his neck he opened it to the compartment with the duffel of Alteran technology. He left the trunk open for the moment after returning what healing gear had been used to it.

The memory of the attack came back in a flash. "The Hunter had tracked me down and cornered me after a lecture at Oxford. He – it was definitely a he – said something about me leading him to his bounty before hitting me with the curse. I'm not sure what me leading him to his bounty was about but I'm glad I'm still alive."

While the Hunter's remark worried John, he hoped it wouldn't be anything that would disturb his vacation.

Multiple pops announced the team's arrival in the observation post across from number 12. "Good, you're all here," Han Sobel said as he picked up a full color magical photo of the two men who went for a run earlier. "This is the target," Sobel pointed to one of the two. "He is to be taken alive if at all possible. My employer wants to have a word with him. The other one is not necessary." The team of highly trained wizards understood what that meant.

The team geared up and double checked that they had everything. Exiting the observation post they quickly crossed the street and made it to the stoop of 12 Grimmauld Place without being seen. Sobel counted down from five on his fingers and the door was blasted open with a Reducto, giving the team full access to the house where their bounty was holed up.

_AN: Well, that's that chapter. One more to go. Let's see if I can get this next one out before I die of old age, eh?_

_ -Ravenfur_


	5. Chapter Five

**The Light Brigade**___by Ravenfur_

_ AN: Holy shit. It's actually done. It's taken me since March of 2008, but it's actually DONE. And all it took was a week long internet outage. This chapter (and the eventual villian) have been in my mind since I started the thing, its just taken forever to write. Thanks for reading everyone; I hope you like this final installment._

_ Disclaimer: Nope, don't own them._

**Chapter Five**

The loud crash from the downstairs entry captured the attention of the four people in number 12 Grimmauld Place's hospital wing. John Sheppard glanced over to Rodney McKay. The expression on the Colonel's face was familiar to the scientist. It was a look of, 'Who invited Murphy to the party?'

"You by chance didn't happen to grab a life signs detector did you?" John asked Rodney, shutting the door leading out of the hospital wing as quietly as possible before standing to one side of it.

The scientist almost dove for the trunk, going through the bag in the open compartment. "Please be here, please be here, please be here," Rodney muttered as he dug through each pocket in the duffel. "Yes!" he whispered as he pulled out the Alteran life signs detector. This was quickly thought 'on'. "Uh-oh."

"What-oh?" John walked over to the trunk and shut the storage compartment. Opening it to the armory compartment he pulled out a P-90 and several clips of ammo. Shrugging into a flack vest, Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard felt ready for war.

"Twenty-one life signs on the floor below us, but one's green and kind of fuzzy. That's probably the elf. They've split up, half look to be clearing the bottom floor and half are on their way up here," Rodney reported.

John looked over Rodney's shoulder. "It looks like they're starting at the opposite end of the hall, we'll probably be able to pick them off when they try to investigate this room. How are you on ammo?"

Rodney looked guilty. "Left 'em in my room." John looked reproachfully at his geek. "Well, I didn't expect to have this place invaded!" Rodney defended himself.

The Colonel fished out several clips of ammo for the Beretta 9mm handgun that Rodney was already wearing. He turned to Dora who was looking down into the expanded trunk compartment full of everything from Earth low- and high-powered weaponry to weaponry found only in the Pegasus Galaxy.

Dora looked up from her contemplation of the armory compartment. "I could get you arrested for 99 percent of this stuff," Inspector Dora Tonks-Lupin of the Metropolitian Police's Magi Department told John. "Where did you get all of this?"

"Conjured most of it," John said as he dug around in the open trunk. "I had to buy the ammo though; I don't know enough about what actually goes into making bullets to conjure my own." He pulled out a hand-sized version of the Wraith stunner and handed it to Dora. "You use this. It stuns but prevents them from just reviving their downed comrades the way a _stupefy_ could be canceled. Try to get at least one prisoner, I want to find out who paid this Hunter to come after Moony."

Taking the unfamiliar weapon, Dora took a few potshots at a ugly landscape hanging on the wall to get used to the recoil. "I don't suppose you'd let me keep this?"

"Nope."

"Damn," Dora said.

"What happened to the supposedly unbreakable wards that were on this dump?" John asked as he finished stuffing clips of ammo into the pockets of his flack vest.

Dora sighed. "Remy's the one holding the wards, only he can raise or lower them. After he got attacked I couldn't activate the wards. I guess that's one of the reasons that they were able to get in."

"What do I get to do?" Remus asked from where he was sitting up in the bed.

John looked over to his godfather. A wave of his hand and a flash from the freckle-like runes sent his bed walking over to a somewhat sheltered corner. Walls grew around him until he was protected on three sides. "You get to sit here and be safe. You're not in any condition to fight a battle. Activate the anti-apparation wards so they can't apparate past us."

Closing his eyes the werewolf sorted through the various ties that ran from his magical core to the net of wards over number 12 Grimmauld Place. "Done," Remus said.

"John! They're on the last room before this one!" Rodney interrupted from where he had been keeping an eye on the life signs detector.

"Let's go then. Remember, we want at least one prisoner. Remus, take this. Your magic is exhausted from fighting the curse. Shoot anyone who comes up through this illusion." John fished out another Beretta and three ammo clips for the bedridden werewolf before casting an illusion over the gap in the defensive wall.

The three able bodied defenders were crouching behind rough barriers conjured to give some protection. Each had their weapon of choice ready. Rodney kept half an eye on the life signs detector. After a moment he signaled to John who signaled Dora to get ready. They heard footsteps walking down the hallway, getting closer. **Ten outside door**, Rodney reported in hand signals after looking down at the life signs detector.

**Wait**, John signed in return as the doorknob turned, switching his P-90 off it's safety setting and to full automatic. The door was opened and three men walked in, the tips of their wands lit for illumination from the dark hall. Count down from three... two... one... **Now!**

Gunfire erupted as the room was lit up by the strange blue light of the Wraith stunner. First the three men who walked in to clear the room went down as the rapid noise of semi-automatic gunfire echoed off the walls. They went down riddled with rounds. The defenders ducked behind their conjured barriers as the remainder of the force entered the room, casting _reducto_'s to give them cover. The _reducto_'s hit the barriers, sending splinters of wood. Luckily they held long enough for the three to get off another hail of bullets and blue energy. When the dust settled there were ten bodies on the ground.

Dora made a face at the ever increasing pool of blood that surrounded the ten bodies. "Did we get any stunned?" she wondered, not wanting to go in and find out for herself. It had been quite some time since she had dealt with such a gruesome scene, even with her work with the Metropolitan Police or before that the Aurors.

John didn't have any of her squeamishness and waded in, checking pulses here and there. "We got one prisoner," he said as a flash of light from the freckle-runes levitated the man out of the pool of blood. The paralysis would last for quite some time after the stun effect wore off and he woke up. "Where should we stick him?"

Dora thought for a moment then hit the stunned man with an anti-gravity jinx, full body bind and a sticking charm. The result was the stunned man was stuck to the ceiling, an effective way to keep him out of the fight in case his stunned state wore off before the fight was over. "Good idea. Switch to your wand, we've got our prisoner," John whispered to Dora.

"Are you guys ok?" Remus shouted from behind the wall that hid his bed.

Remus was shushed as Rodney spoke. "I think they heard the guns," the scientist looked up from the life signs detector. "The other ten are on the other side of the house but they're on their way here."  
A few _evanasco_'s were cast to get rid of the bodies and the blood before they heard the pounding of feet storming up the stairs. "Higginson! Report!" Someone shouted from the hallway.

The pounding feet got closer as Rodney, John and Dora took positions behind the battered barriers. The noise got closer and closer until the man on point, the shouter, burst into the room. Gunfire erupted again, broken only by the spells from Dora's wand. Underneath the loud noise of automatic fire the tinkling of spent cartridges hitting the ground could be heard.

The first body hit the floor and the man entering the room behind him tripped over his comrade. The second man got three good shots off before McKay's two 9mm hollowpoint rounds ended his life. Men number three, four and five tried a different tactic, coming in under the cover of the five men still in the hallway. The conjured barriers held and one by one, they fell. Dora's quick over-powered _diffendo_'s took the next two leaving just three men. These men apparently had no sense of tactics and, instead of fighting from a covered position in the hallway, rushed the room. They died.

Another perusal of the Alteran life signs detector showed that besides the stunned man, there were no other intruders in the house. A collective sigh of relief came from the three.

More _evanesco_'s cleaned up the remaining bodies and_ accio_ charms made sure that both the shell casings that had been left by the two weapons and any stray rounds had been found and eliminated. Remus' bed was returned to its original position and the protecting wall disappeared. The impromptu cover was banished and _reparo_'s restored the hospital wing to how it had been before Grimmauld Place was attacked.

John retrieved the gun that he had given to the werewolf and the Wraith stunner he had loaned to Dora. The metamorphmagus was reluctant to let the alien weapon go – it seemed to be the perfect thing for police work; knock out a suspect and have him unreviveable by magic but have him still be alive to take to court. Then, as one, four heads turned to look at the man stuck to the ceiling.

"What are you going to do with him?" Remus asked. It had been tough for him to sit and listen to the fighting going on just the other side of the barrier.

"First we need to figure out who paid them and who they were coming after," John said as he returned the weapons to the armory compartment of his portable trunk. "Then, how they found out where Remus was and how they found this place."

A quiet groan came from the man who was stuck securely to the ceiling. "How long does that stun thing last?" Dora asked.

"At most, thirty minutes, though they wake about fifteen minutes in. Paralysis lasts the full thirty though, and gradually wears off. My guess is that he's just barely coming around," Rodney estimated. He didn't mention the painful pins-and-needles that would linger for hours. Definitely not the thing you wanted when trying to escape from enemy territory.

"Well, let's get him a bit more comfortable," John said as he hit their prisoner with the counter to the anti-gravity jinx. He didn't bother to cushion the man's fall and when he hit the ground everyone heard the sharp sound of a bone breaking.

None of the magic users bothered to mend the broken arm as their prisoner's wand and magic objects were summoned away from him. Two wands, three potions, one bracelet portkey, one ring carrying poison and a dagger with an ever-sharp enchantment. Subsequent summonings produced other small daggers hidden on his person. Then Dora frisked him and a third wand was pulled from a _accio_-proof holster. Finally he was bound tightly in both a body bind and conjured ropes.

It took the man another fifteen minutes to come fully around and during that time Remus got out of bed, taking weak steps around the room. The Alteran healing devices had done their job well and although the werewolf was exhausted and magically drained, he was alive. Remus collapsed back on the bed when their prisoner groaned again and opened his eyes.

The panic on the man's face was evident when he realized that one: he was paralyzed, two: he couldn't hear any of his companions and three: the bounty and three other people were standing in front of him.

John smirked at the panicked man before turning to Dora and Remus. "Do you have any Veritaserum?"

The metamporphmagus walked over to the shelf that survived the fight, pulling a bottle of what looked like distilled water down. The shielding present on the shelf meant that the house could collapse and the bottles would be sitting unharmed, ready to dispense their contents. Taking an eyedropper, she withdrew enough truth drug for one dose.

Their prisoner smirked back at John and the magic users felt a whisper. While wand users could not do big things with wandless magic, wand users with enough magic in their core could master one or two spells. The whisper they had just felt was the activation of one such spell.

"Gd lk wif versrum," their prisoner slurred through still numb lips. The four took a moment to decipher the slurred voice.

Flicking her wand in a complicated pattern, Dora grumbled to herself when the wisp of vapor emitted from her wand was blue. She'd seen this before but because it was so expensive, it was only the third time. Before speaking she charmed their prisoner deaf. "He took a antiserum. I think it was in his stomach and he activated it with that bit of wandless magic." She spotted John and Rodney's confused looks. "The Hidden Truth potion was developed a year ago; it's extremely expensive but is an effective preventative against Veritaserum. We have no way to know how much he took so no way to calculate how long he's immune."

"Isn't there another way you could force him to tell the truth?" Rodney asked.

Remus stretched, getting used to being up and around again. "We could verify what he said was true but only Veritaserum will force someone to talk."

As they spoke the wraith stunner's paralyzing after-effects were wearing off. From the way their prisoner was twitching his upper body the pins-and-needles sensation had begun. John sighed and then looked over to Rodney. "Why don't you guys go downstairs and get Remus something to eat. I'm sure he's starving after all that time in stasis."

Their several years in the field together meant that Rodney could see what Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard was going to do. A quick, silent argument was held before the scientist sighed and acquiesced. "Sure, let's go get some food. I'm starving and there's probably some of the cake from dessert last night around." Rodney made sure that Dora and Remus preceded him down the stairs. "Be careful," he told John before following.

John removed the charm deafaning the man bound before him and sat on the bed, waiting for the rest of the paralysis to wear off. The bound man, noting the absence of any other witnesses, watched as the scary looking wizard talked. "I want you to know that if you freely give up the information I request nothing will happen to you. You'll have to swear a Oath to the veracity of that information though."

The paralysis had faded enough so that their prisoner could talk understandably now. "Not gonna say nuffin," was all the man would say.

"I thought you would say that," Sheppard sighed before standing. Picking up the prisoner he dropped him onto a chair and securely tied him to it. "I'll stop anytime you want to start talking."

There was the snap of a bone breaking.

Halfway through a lunch of curried chicken, Remus heard a shout from the foyer. "Guys, come back up, our prisoner is ready to talk."

Rodney was the first up the stairs and into the hospital wing turned interrogation room. The man they had captured was drenched with sweat and was shaking. There were suspiciously clean spots on the otherwise grungy and dirty outfit the man was wearing. Pale as bone their prisoner tried to edge away from John Sheppard as much as he could even though he was restricted by the ropes that bound him to the chair.

"I'll talk, I'll talk," he cried, looking at the three new people in the room. "Just keep him away from me!" The prisoner jerked his head towards John, who was looming not too far away from the bound man. Rodney looked John over carefully. He could tell by the look in the USAF officer's eyes that John wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.

By default of her professionally trained interrogation skills, Inspector Tonks-Lupin was nominated to do the talking. Following the routine she had been taught, not by the lazy idiots at the Aurors but at the Magi Division of the Metropolitan Police, Dora deafened their prisoner and conjured a temporary barrier. As John had claimed command, she deferred to him. "Any questions that you want to make sure are answered?"

"Make sure you find out who paid them to attack Remus, and how they found out where this place was," Shepard immediately said.

Dora nodded and went to vanish the barrier before pausing. "What are we going to do with him when we're done?"

Silence. The four looked at each other. A hard look was in John's eyes; he wanted to eliminate a threat to the family that he had built up. That look was matched by Remus; the wolf in him wanted revenge. "What was that forgetting spell you told me about when we were talking to Herman Juno?" Rodney asked.

That drew John away from the bloodthirsty area his thoughts had wandered into. "Obliviation, why?"

"Why don't we just make him forget everything? Dump him in a hospital as an amnesia patient. Can this Obliviation be broken?" Rodney proposed.

This solution appealed to Dora. "Depending on the strength of the Obliviation, no. And then, it would take someone more powerful than the Obliviator to break it." She turned to John. "You're the most magically powerful of us, you should do it." John nodded and Dora vanished the barrier.

Settling the case she had carried into the room with her onto a table, the metamorphmagus took out what looked like an ivory baton. It was too long and thin to be a wand. The runes inlaid in ebony identified the baton to the magic users. "It's an oathmaker. When the Auror department needs someone they can't trust with a wand to make a magical oath, they give them one of these. There's just enough magic in the oathmaker to make a binding oath but it's useless for anything else," Dora told Rodney.

The oathmaker was placed in the bound man's hand and he was coached through a carefully worded oath. "I, Frommel Higginson, vow to tell the complete truth to any question asked in this room, and not leave anything I know out of my responses." The oathmaker flashed and Higginson felt the self-induced compulsion settle over him. He could not even contemplate lying.

"Why did you and your companions attack Remus Lupin?" Dora began the interrogation.

"Our employer knew that if the werewolf was killed then John Sheppard would show up," Higginson replied.

"And who is your employer?" Dora asked. Rodney exchanged looks with John. If this was another attack by the Trust...

Higginson sighed. "Most of us didn't know, but as I was assigned to watch this place and report to our commander when Sheppard showed up, Sobel let me know. We were being paid by Hortensia Nott."

"Who's Hortensia Nott?" Rodney whispered.

"She's the mother of one of my former year-mates at Hogwarts," John whispered back.

"Why is Nott trying to get John Sheppard killed?"

Their prisoner took a glance over at the still looming Colonel, then back at Dora. "I don't know," he told her. "She wouldn't say, just hired our team and told us that if we killed the werewolf, our target would come to the funeral. Lady Nott gave Sobel a few photographs to help identify who she wanted brought to her."

Further questioning revealed that Higginson knew nothing of the Stargate program, Atlantis or the fact that Harry Potter was now living under the name John Sheppard. He did give Hortensia Nott's address, a manor house outside of Whitehaven.

Doctor Anthony Stebbins looked at John Doe in slight confusion. He had been admitted that day with amnesia. The officer that had brought him in, Inspector Tonks-Lupin, told the hospital staff that she had seen a man collapsed outside her house. Thinking he was a homeless man, the Inspector went outside to ask the man to move on and was surprised that, even though the man was physically fine he didn't remember anything, not his name or why he was walking around in London at night. There was a lot of work to be done with John Doe but hopefully he could be helped to making a productive life in society.

"Why didn't we bring Dora or Remus with us?" Rodney whispered, shifting his P-90 to a better grip.

"You saw how exhausted Remus was," John replied, squinting at thin air. "Dora didn't want to leave him. Besides, we're better at this kind of situation, we go through it every time we leave base." He continued to peer at something Rodney couldn't see, despite the spell allowing him to see magical dwellings. He could see the well kept medium-sized manor house across a grassy field, not the strong dome of wards that they had almost triggered.

The work he put into studying runes was paying off, John thought. A small spell that had been taught to him by Dumbledore allowed him to read the arithmantic equations that the ward was supported by. It was a very good set of wards. Only those allowed by the holder of the wards – Hortensia Nott – were allowed through. Another layer barred animagi. A third stopped spells cast from reaching inside. The wards, from what he could see, also deactivated wands not keyed into the wards. The wardcrafters probably thought they had covered everything. They had never met John Sheppard.

"I think I see a way in," John looked over at Rodney. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course," Rodney said instantly.

Sheppard looked over at Rodney. "I'm serious. Do you trust me? Not just with your body but with your mind?"

McKay took a moment to think about that. Did he really, truly trust John? He thought back to countless missions where the Colonel had pulled his ass out of the fire. After a moment he spoke. "You're probably the only one I really do trust," Rodney whispered.

That was touching and deserved a quick kiss. "The wards prevent any access by animagi or humans, and extend upwards and downwards in a complete sphere. I do see an opening, but it's going to be risky. Very risky, for you."

"Oh, just spit it out," Rodney demanded, as quietly as he could.

"Remember how I transfigured that jar into a cat back home?" John asked.

"Yes..." McKay drew the word out, unsure where this was going.

"I can get by the wards if I change shape. It's not an animagus transfiguration so the wards will think I'm just a normal animal. I'm going to have to transfigure you into an animal to get you across. It's very dangerous to transfigure someone into something. If the person's left in the transfigured state too long they could lose their sense of humanity. They could forget they're anything but the animal," John said quietly.

The paranoid pessimist in Rodney threatened to rear it's ugly head but he forced it back. They had to figure out how Nott knew about John and force her to never attack them again. "If that's the only way..."

John reclaimed the P-90 and tucked it into the trunk on his necklace, then stripped off his clothes and unbound his ribs. Shoving clothes, bandage and his own P-90 into the compartment, John returned the trunk to his necklace. Rodney eyed the nude John with appreciation. "Focus Rodney," Sheppard told McKay. "You need to keep a firm grip on yourself. You're going to be in a transfigured state until we reach the manor; there's no cover in between here and there. Once we get there I'll return you to normal. Ready?"

No he was not ready, thank you very much, Rodney thought to himself. "Yeah, do it," he said instead.

Whispering something that felt like a prayer, John transfigured Rodney into a cat and hit him with a paralysis jinx. It was plain that the tan cat felt unnerved; every hair on the cat was standing straight out. John quickly made his own shift, runes facilitating the flow into feline form. Acting as quickly as he could the grey and black cat dragged the tan one through the grass until they reached the manor.

Hoping he had been quick enough, Sheppard flowed back into human and returned the tan cat to normal. There was a distinctly unnerved look in Rodney's eyes before the man stumbled and fell on his rear. "Rodney, you ok?" John bent down to help the scientist up.

"Yeah, I think," McKay said in a decidedly weirded out tone of voice. "That was... strange." He didn't remember much, just a strange feeling like he should be chasing something fuzzy and a strong craving for fish.

John had resized the trunk and was pulling on his clothes. He looked at the bandage and tested his ribs, bending and stretching. Still painful but he'd always healed fast and they felt fine so he left it off. The two automatic weapons were retrieved and flack vests were donned. Extra ammo clips were tucked into almost every pocket. Rodney claimed the life signs detector and thought it on.

"It doesn't look like she has any visitors. One life sign, that direction," McKay gestured.

Taking a deep breath, the Colonel settled his P-90 in his grip. "Let's go."

The doors to the study burst open, wood clattering down off hinges to slam against the floor. Hortensia Nott looked up from her study of the fire, a cold look on her face. "So they failed," Lady Nott told the two men who entered her home.

"They did," her target stalked in pointing a strange weapon at her. A man she didn't recognize also carried the same weapon.

"I didn't think you would find out who sent them so quickly, Harry Potter. Or is it John Sheppard now?" Hortensia said without standing. She was pale as bone, her skin contrasting starkly with her widow's weeds.

"I prefer Sheppard, thank you very much," John said coldly. He wondered why Hortensia wasn't attempting to reach for the wand on the table next to her. "Why? Why did you send them after me?"

Hortensia laughed but began coughing before she could speak. When she drew the handkerchief away from her mouth she noticed blood. Good. "You wonder why?" She snorted. "Do you even remember the lives you have taken? Countless good men who died at _your_ hands. Men like Thaddeus. Men like Theodore. Men you killed! Is that not enough reason?" She began to cough blood again.

"Who were Thaddeus and Theodore?" Rodney whispered to John.

The woman in the chair by the fire heard. "My husband! My son! Killed by that _monster_ next to you. And our own government _praises_ your actions," Hortensia snarled.

"It was their choice to bind themselves to Voldemort that killed them. If they hadn't taken the Dark Mark they would still be living today," Sheppard said quietly.

Hortensia began to wheeze, muscles relaxing. The strength in her hands began to fade causing a small vial to drop to the ground. It rolled until it rested against Rodney's boot. Warily the scientist picked up the empty vial. There were still a few drops of a thick amber liquid at the bottom of the container. "What's that?" he questioned, handing it to John.

Sheppard sadly recognized the amber residue contained in the vial. "Basilisk poison. Slow-acting but definitely one way to be sure you're going to die," he told his scientist, then looked back at Lady Nott. "How did you find out where I was?"

"I have friends in high places," Hortensia wheezed, then pulled together the last of her strength. "When I heard the werewolf was looking for John Sheppard, I asked them to find out what they could about you. John Sheppard never existed until _after_ Harry Potter vanished from the Wizarding World. The picture in your SRB was close enough to what an older Harry Potter would look like."

The woman slowly shut her eyes, the energy to get that large amount of information out sapping the rest of her life force. "And thus ends the glorious Nott family... Thadd, Teddy, I'm coming..." she whispered before her chest fell and did not rise again. The smirk that was her last expression froze on her face.

The manor was silent for one long moment before McKay noticed a noise. "What's that?"

Sheppard listened for a moment before recognizing the faint yet rising hum. "An old demolitions spell," he shouted, yanking McKay back the way they came. Time was of the essence so when they came to a wall on the outside of the house John hit it with several _Reducto_'s. When it was large enough to crawl through the two made for the wardline as fast as possible.

Their escape was thwarted when they smacked into the wards. John preformed the fastest ward analysis he had ever done. It helped that he knew what to look for this time. "We've got to change shape again to get out! Remember, keep a firm hold on your human mind!" Sheppard shouted over the loud hum. The fact that it was audible across the football field-sized lawn told the Colonel that the house was almost ready to blow.

Once again Rodney was turned into a cat and hit with a paralysis jinx so he wouldn't flee in his panic. John shifted to cat form and dragged the tan cat across the wardline. As fast as he could Sheppard reversed both his and Rodney's transformations, unjinxing the scientist at the same time.

They couldn't have crossed the wardline at a better time. The hum of building magical power reached its peak, the air within the wards vibrating. The noise silenced moments before the beautiful manor exploded. Timber flew in every direction, bouncing off the bubble of wards that enclosed the property. Each impact caused the almost impenetrable wards to flare into the visible spectrum of light, allowing Rodney to see what only John previously could. When the blast of energy had expended it's strength a massive cloud of smoke was trapped within the bubble.

"Let's get out of here before someone comes to find out what happened here," McKay suggested before looking over at John. "Where's your clothes?"

Sheppard sighed. "I didn't have time to grab them. Would you rather me have taken five seconds longer and still be on the other side of the wards?"

Rodney thought about the shards of wood, glass and fragments of house that had seemed to impact every millimeter of the wards. No-one could have survived that, not at the force that the debris hit. "Well, at least put something on. You're distracting," the scientist stated.

John fished out a spare set of BDU's out of his shrunken trunk and pulled them on, then turned back to McKay. "There. Can we leave now?"

"...so if you have any contacts in the Auror department, you might want to send someone over to the Nott manor tomorrow, if they haven't already detected the explosion," John told Dora as he helped manhandle Remus into the single bed in the hospital wing. While the two earthbound members of AR-1 had been on their hunt, Remus' energy had been slowly fading. The werewolf was healing but when the adrenaline of having his home invaded had faded his body reminded him that he had been ill for three months.

Dora nodded and smoothed her husband's grey hair out of his eyes. "I'll talk to Director Proudfoot tomorrow," she promised.

When Remus had fallen asleep the pair slipped out of the room and headed downstairs. Rodney had beaten them to the midnight snack that Trinnea the elf had set out. "Thanks for saving some for us," John said as he rescued a plate of chicken from the hands of the hungry physicist. "Hey, you've got your own," the Colonel replied to the dirty look Rodney sent his way.

"So how much longer are you two with us?" Dora asked. "Thank you, Trinnea," she added when the elf set some tea before her.

"We have to get back to the states the day after tomorrow," John replied. "Remy's on the mend so you won't need all the stuff we brought with us."

Dora frowned. "You've only been here two weeks! Isn't there any way you can stay longer?"

"We need to get back to Atlantis. I only could take two weeks leave," Sheppard set down his fork and pulled some paper out of his pocket. A flash from the runes that covered his body made a pen materialize. He quickly scribbled on the paper before looking across the table to his geek. "Rodney, do you have a copy of that encryption program you created for Jeannie with you?"

Rodney saw where the Colonel was going with this and nodded. "I have a copy saved on my laptop. I can install it before we leave," the scientist offered.

John handed the paper to Dora. "That's my e-mail address. Go buy a computer, teach Remus how to use it and you can get in touch with me that way. It might take a while to get a response – the e-mails are sent once a week through the Stargate to Atlantis – but I will get it and reply. That ought to be faster than sending a letter to Manny and having him forward it to me. Rodney's going to set up an encryption program that will prevent anyone Earthside from getting access to the e-mails so feel free to talk about classified material. However they're monitored by the Stargate Program so assume that they're being read by a muggle."

"No mentions of magic in the e-mails, got it." Dora wrote out her own e-mail address for Sheppard. "Don't disappear again. You're family. Stay in touch," the metamorphmagus demanded.

"Yes, auntie," John rolled his eyes.

"Don't call me auntie!"

"Now remember, you can't talk about the Stargate program or Atlantis to anyone. Even if you find a way around the oaths you swore, don't. You'll have the American, British, Russian and other countries involved after you," John was standing in the foyer, dressed in his dress blues and carrying his duffel over one shoulder.

Remus sighed. "You had me sign a veritable book of forms that said exactly that. I got it, cub." The werewolf stopped leaning against the wall and hugged the slightly taller man. "And this time don't go five years before visiting."

"Next time I get Earthside leave I'll stop by. Let auntie teach you how to use a computer. That way you can bother me weekly," Sheppard dropped his duffel to better hug his godfather.

Dora entered the foyer, tripping over and glaring at the umbrella stand that she still hadn't figured how to remove. Knocking down the wall had removed the portrait of Walburga Black but no matter what she tried the damn stand wouldn't move. "Computers are easy, Remy. Maybe this time you'll actually put effort into learning how to use one?" The metamorphmagus smirked to John. "When he first got his teaching job I tried to show him but Remus insisted on doing all his work on paper."

Before John could reply Rodney showed up, shoving one last piece of technology into the first of two duffel bags he carried. "Ok, I think I got everything this time," McKay zipped the bag shut and was surprised when Dora hugged him. "Uhm... it was nice to meet you," he said when she let go.

"Take care of John for us? I'm sure you could make him not do anything too idiotic and get himself killed?" Dora Tonks-Lupin asked.

Rodney smirked over Dora's shoulder at the grimacing John before replying, "I'll try. With all the idiotic shit he pulls offworld it's a miracle he's not dead yet."

"That's all we can ask. And if you want to come back and visit the next vacation from Atlantis you get, feel free to drop in." McKay looked slightly bewildered at the invitation but accepted.

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Sheppard smiled tightly to the two Lupins. "I'm glad you're feeling better, Remus. I'll give Kamaria, Frank and Sophie those letters you wrote. We'll keep in touch." John hefted his bag and reluctantly followed Rodney out of Twelve Grimmauld Place.

The plane ride back to the States was as stressful for Sheppard as the one to London had been. Rodney still found his fidgety behavior hilarious. John didn't even try to sleep on the ten hour flight from Heathrow to Denver International; he just tried to lose himself in his book. The flight seemed to take forever. John was used to the speed of the _Daedalus_ or the Puddle Jumpers and the slow – roughly 500MPH – cruising speed was driving him crazy. He was very relieved when the captain turned on the seatbelt sign and they began to land at Denver International Airport.

Passports out they sped through customs. John was once again glad that the customs agents couldn't see inside the shrunken, invisible trunk around his neck. A taxi that was willing to take them the hour drive out to Cheyenne Mountain was secured and as soon as he got in the smelly, cramped car Sheppard was asleep.

John awoke to Rodney's frustrated voice. "John, get up," the scientist almost shoved him out of the taxi. "I want to get home and to do that I need to get out of this damn taxi and I can't do _that_ until you get off me!"

After John was fully awake and they had paid their fare Rodney shoved him towards the heavily guarded entrance. "I don't know why you don't just sleep where you're supposed to, like you should have last night, in a proper bed?"

Their approach to the entrance of the SGC was halted by the security forces that had been eying their arrival uncomfortably. Sheppard's dress blues, adorned by his Lieutenant Colonel's silver oak leaves got him less rude treatment than the civilian he was stopped with. Once the Staff Sergeant in charge of the roadblock had cleared them Rodney made a beeline for the elevators.

"I'll go check in with the duty officer," John told McKay. "I guess you're going to see if we have to wait until the _Daedalus_ returns to head home?"

"If that Puddle Jumper is broken in any way, someone is going to die," Rodney grumbled and left the elevator on the storage level.

John continued to the last floor and headed towards the control room. As it was 0100MT, he didn't expect to find General Landry on base. He did get in touch with Major Griff, the duty officer, and found out that they were expected. General Landry had written that, if Rodney got the Puddle Jumper working again, they were cleared to head back to Atlantis via the Midway Station.

"What exactly happened to the Jumper? I heard someone was trying to reprogram it?" Sheppard asked Griff.

Griff looked uncomfortable at the question but answered. "We had a scientist come in from Area 51 to look at a device we picked up on a recent offworld trip. She got sidetracked when she saw the Puddle Jumper and began experimenting with it. I don't do science so I didn't understand what was going on but Carter was as pissed as she could get when she saw what that scientist did."

Taking the elevator back to the storage level, Sheppard followed the sound of curses to the largest of the storage rooms. This one was specifically set aside for Puddle Jumpers from Atlantis, being open on the far end to the ceiling of the former missile silo that had been converted into the gateroom.

John approached the open hatch and peeked in. All he could see were two legs sticking out from the front console of the Jumper. "Rodney, everything OK in there?"

There was a loud thud before more cursing was heard. "Why can't you walk louder? Oh, don't answer that. Get in here. I think I almost have it. Do we have cle-there we go!" The front console lit up, the overhead lights turning on. McKay wiggled out of the tight place he had crammed himself in, rubbing at the back of his head with one hand. "They managed to completely disconnect any access to the power source and fry the power conduits. Nothing my genius couldn't handle." Rodney smirked smugly. "It's going to need a full inspection when we get home but it will get us there. So do we have clearance to leave?"

"I'm glad you fixed it. Three weeks with Caldwell was not something I was looking forward to. Yeah, Landry thought we'd be back tonight. He left Griff – the duty officer – orders. Wormhole travel to Atlantis via Midway." John dumped the bag he was carrying on one of the two benches in back next to Rodney's two and pulled the shrunken trunk off his necklace. Opening it to the second compartment he withdrew the bag of healing technology and carefully settled it on the pile. When the trunk had been returned to around his neck Sheppard sat down in the pilot's chair. "Are the radio's up?"

Rodney began replacing the paneling he had pulled away to access the Puddle Jumper's systems. "Should be."

Sheppard keyed the microphone. "SGC control, this is Puddle Jumper 1. We're operational and ready to depart. Can you open the doors for us?" He didn't get a response but the large blast doors at the end of the room slowly opened. "Thanks, Griff," John shut down the microphone and turned to his copilot. "Ready to leave?"

"Hell yes," Rodney buckled himself into the seat and punched the button that closed the rear hatch.

His hands on the mental interface, John thought on the Puddle Jumper and slowly eased it forward into the former missile silo. Carefully he lowered the Jumper until it was at the level of the Stargate, out of the way of the vortex expelled when the wormhole is created. The man seated at the computer in the control room punched seven keys on his keyboard and the seven chevrons lit up. "So long, Earth," Sheppard whispered as he sent the Puddle Jumper through the wormhole.

It was about noon Atlantis Standard Time. Elizabeth Weir was doing some paperwork, laughing at some of the supply requests that were sent to her for approval. What did Miko Kusanagi need with 500 Nerf bullets? Why did Sgt Stackhouse need two cases of Post-it notes and a case of Sharpies? What was Dr Heightmeyer going to do with three SuperSoakers and purple food dye?

A interruption came when the tiny red light situated on her desk lit up. When she had gotten sick of having the gateroom staff coming to her every time the Stargate was used, Weir instructed the maitenence staff to install two lights. The red one was lit when an incoming wormhole was detected and the green one next to it lit when they received a valid code to drop the shield. Elizabeth didn't think that there were any teams offworld and went to investigate what was coming through.

"Oh, Dr Weir," Chuck Waller, the gate technician on duty that afternoon sat up in his chair and dropped his magazine. He glanced over a the Stargate and saw the wormhole just forming. As soon as the vortex had dissipated the shield was activated tinting the normally blue event horizon purple.

"IDC received," another gate technician reported, looking at the information being sent through. "It's Colonel Sheppard's."

"Drop the shield," Weir authorized and the purple tint vanished. A 'all clear' signal was sent through the wormhole and momentarily a Puddle Jumper appeared. From where she was standing Elizabeth saw John and Rodney seated in the cockpit. She couldn't prevent a relieved sigh; they were back safe and sound. And since she hadn't gotten any reports through the SGC, she assumed there hadn't been any trouble.

John carefully parked the Puddle Jumper and picked up his two bags. Rodney opened the rear hatch and the gateroom guard with the strongest ATA-gene entered. "Welcome back, sir," the Sergeant saluted.

"Glad to be back, Jefferson. Be careful with her, someone back on Earth fucked up the systems and McKay had to repair it," Sheppard replied as Jefferson took a seat at the helm.

Carrying their luggage the two exited the Puddle Jumper and watched the rear hatch close. Jefferson, whose job it was to return any inbound Puddle Jumpers to the storage bay, eased the ship up and out of the gateroom.

A faint humming filled his mind as the lights brightened slightly. John smiled and patted the nearby wall. "I'm home, alright? I missed you too." The humming in his mind had a pleased note. Sheppard turned to McKay. "I'll go brief Elizabeth. How about you go put away that technology before Carson realizes that you took his spares?" Rodney saw that as sense and hoped the Scottish doctor hadn't noticed that his backup set of healing gear had been borrowed.

Elizabeth met them before Rodney went to replace the Alteran healing devices. "Colonel, Dr McKay, welcome back," she inspected them carefully. "Hopefully you had a quiet vacation?" Before they could answer she headed back to her office, gesturing for John to follow. In her office the Colonel took one of the chairs, settling his duffel bag on the other. "John, how is your godfather?" Weir asked hesitantly.

Sheppard grinned reassuringly. "He had a miraculous spontaneous recovery. The doctors were rather freaked out at how quickly he got better."

Elizabeth looked relieved. "So those forms I gave you, did you need to use any of them?"

"Only two sets, one for my godfather Remus and another for his wife Dora. I didn't tell them anything specific about missions or Earthside details but I did talk about Atlantis and some of the things we do here. Hearing about the Wraith kind of spooked auntie Dora."

"Do they understand how classified this information is?"

John nodded firmly. "Dora works with the Metropolitan Police in a highly specialized and classified division. Remus sometimes does consultation work with them. They both understand that they can't talk about this to anyone. If I didn't think that they could handle it I wouldn't have told them. Oh, these are yours," he fished the signed paperwork out of his bag, along with the three unused sets of disclosure documents.

"I'll make sure they're filed back on Earth. Well, I'll let you get unpacked. Right now it's about noon on Saturday. Ronon and Teyla are out helping the Athosians with planting their crops. Come Monday you'll all be back on active duty so expect a checkup from Carson Monday morning." Elizabeth smiled at John's groan. "Welcome back."

John and Rodney were camped out in the commissary, plates of food and Athosian moonspice bread in front of them. At the far end of their table one of Rodney's many laptops was playing _V for Vendetta_. "Man, I missed this," Sheppard said around a mouthful of the moonspice bread. The moonspice was one of the Athosian's biggest selling crops, only planted and harvested on full moons. It tasted somewhere between cinnamon, ginger and cayenne pepper.

"I am so glad to be home. You wouldn't believe how much of a mess my lab is in. At least Radek got the two whiteboards I was working on carefully packed up and sent to storage," Rodney hummed in time with the 1812 Overture. It was one of both their favorite songs. Rodney liked it for the music. John just liked the cannons scripted into the score.

Loud voices at the door distracted them from the explosion of the Old Bailey at the beginning of the movie. A group of Marines were coming in from PT for dinner, joining the line leading to the kitchen. As John didn't recognize them they were probably part of the reinforcements brought by the _Daedalus_ right before he returned temporarily to Earth. "Hey, pipe down over there! There are other people trying to concentrate here," Rodney turned and shouted at them.

The group of Marines turned en masse to glare at the shouter – or at least they did until they saw Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard glaring right back at them over McKay's shoulder. "Sorry, sirs," the Marines muttered and quieted.

As absorbed in the plot as they were Sheppard and McKay didn't notice one of the Marines duck out of the commissary and return with two women. "You're back!" Sophie St. Claire almost shouted, gaining the attention of everyone in the commissary when she tackled Sheppard with a hug.

John laughed and hugged her back. "It's good to see you too, sis," he told the mountain of bushy hair in his face. "Willows, Kamaria, how are you guys?"

"Glad to see you returned in one piece, John," Kamaria took one of the seats at the table and her husband took the other.

Sophie finally released Sheppard when she realized Rodney was giving her a dirty look. She pulled a chair from a nearby table and sat next to her honorary brother. "How's Moony?"

"We patched him up. I've got some letters he and Dora wrote to you three, and I've got Dora's e-mail address. I'll give you both later," John turned from studying his friends back to _V for Vendetta_.

For fifteen minutes after the trio of Pegasus galaxy rookies joined John and Rodney another loud voice entered the commissary. "Rodney McKay, how dare you steal my emergency replacements!" an outraged Scotsman shouted. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

Rodney's head snapped towards the entrance to the commissary fast enough to give him whiplash. "Seeyoulaterbye!" McKay told the four and fled the commissary, Carson Beckett fast on his heels.

John laughed until he couldn't breathe before returning to the movie.

**The End**

_ AN: It's done. DONE. Five chapters, thirty two thousand, six hundred and fifty four words, one year and three months to completion. Man it feels good to actually complete a long story like this!_

_ On a more serious note, I hope you like the final chapter of this fic. Please, please review and tell me your thoughts. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bask in my accomplishment for a while._


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